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THE

LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

RUDOLF EUCKEN

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN JENA

TRANSLATED BY

F. L. POGSON, M.A.

SECOND EDITION
WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

WILLIAMS & NORGATE

14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1909

Digitized by the Internet Archive
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PREFACE

In the present volume philosophy is not re-
garded as a known quantity, and no attempt
is made to impart it to the individual by a
comparative survey of its different depart-
ments ; but it is treated as a problem — the pro-
blem that it in reality continually becomes in
the course of the centuries. The book re-
presents a particular view of the nature of
philosophy, and undertakes to show that it
must be conceived in this way if it is to be
equal to the demands which are made upon it
by the life of mankind, and particularly by the
present situation. By tracing out as simply
and clearly as possible a few of the leading
lines on which the age-long work of the human
spirit has proceeded, it is shown that our spiri-
tual life is not built up in peace and security
on a given foundation, but that doubt and

PREFACE

conflict extend right down to the foundation,
and that no progress of our inner life is possible
without a reversal of our first impressions.
If philosophy thus appears intimately bound
up with all the striving of humanity and
the necessity for spiritual self-preservation,
then the re-emergence of a philosophy of life
and existence becomes an urgent requirement
in the complication and confusion of the present
situation, and in the struggle which we have
to wage to-day for a spiritual centre for our
civilisation and a perception of the meaning
and value of life. It is because this struggle
concerns not merely the learned, but every
man who does not despair of attaining to inner
independence and true fulness of life, that it
is hoped this book will appeal to a wider circle
of readers, especially those who share the
author's strong and painful conviction of the
inadequacy and indeed the emptiness of
modern civilisation, in spite of all its outer
ostentation. RUDOLF EUCKEN.

Jena, May 1908.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE
AUTHOR

It may render the present volume easier to
understand if the author endeavours to sketch
in a few words what he aims at accomplishing.

My efforts have been inspired by the strong
feeling that the present spiritual situation is
highly unsatisfactory, and in particular that
there is a sharp opposition which divides
mankind and depresses the level of life. The
greatness of our age lies in work, in the sub-
jection and shaping of the world of objects
to human ends : this work has gained more
and more brilliant triumphs, and has altered
the whole of our existence. But these triumphs
have not been accompanied by a correspond-
ing growth in the content of life and the soul
of man. W ork directs our efforts towards

viii INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

external ends, and thus brings into play
only a part, and indeed a more and more
insignificant part, of our faculties. Hence all
technical achievements do not preserve us
from inner emptiness : work overwhelms our
soul and makes us to a continually increasing
extent a mere means and instrument of its
restless activity. In opposition to this a
counter - movement has lately arisen ; man
tears himself away from work, and opposes
to it his own subjective condition ; he seeks
happiness more especially by treating life as
an art, by cultivating refined and pleasurable
emotions, by shaking off the burden of matter
and the objective world. But the aestheticism
which aims at transforming the whole of ex-
istence into pleasure and enjoyment provides
it with no high aims and no real content :
it makes life a mere play on the surface of
things, which may be attractive and delightful
for a certain time, but which in the end is
bound to produce weariness and repulsion.
Hence it becomes a matter of importance

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR ix

to rise above the opposition between soulless
work and empty subjectivism ; this, however,
cannot possibly be accomplished from the out-
side, but requires the strenuous exertion and
deepening of life itself. To help towards this
end is the special task of philosophy, which is
thus seen to be indispensable to humanity,
for it is philosophy which can best co-ordinate
life into a whole, investigate the specific
character of the whole so formed, press for-
ward from the outer appearance to the inner
depths, weigh the significance of each element
in the universe, and try to ascertain the mean-
ing of the whole. But any such thorough
investigation of life must make it evident that
human life — in a large measure, at any rate
— falls within a wider concept of Nature,
and displays a close kinship with the animal
world. It is equally evident, however, that the
possibilities of human life are by no means
entirely exhausted in the life of Nature, but
that with it a new stage of reality arises,
which we call spiritual. This stage does not

x INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

merely exhibit particular new qualities, but
also involves an entirely new kind of exist-
ence : psychical life, which, in the stages below
the human, forms a mere appendage and
serves only to promote physical self-pre-
servation, here first reaches independence,
gives rise to entirely new realities and values,
and forms a realm which is co-ordinated
into a whole by internal connections. This
whole cannot possibly be set down as
a merely human product ; it must spring
from the universe and thence be communi-
cated to man. In appropriating it he appears
as a being who has a share in a cosmic
movement and is called upon to further it.
But the spiritual life is no mere possession to
be enjoyed by man. His average existence
usually forms a turbid medley in which nature
is strong and spirituality weak. Hence the
object to be aimed at is first to build up in
opposition to this average life a realm of
genuine spirituality by means of united work,
and then to raise humanity up to it. This

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR xi

transforms the whole of our existence into
a problem and a task ; at every point life
must be raised to an essentially higher level,
a reversal of its previous course must be
accomplished ; our view of the world and
the kind of life we lead must be given a
specific shape ; humanity as a whole has here
a common work to carry out. From this
starting-point a new idealism is developed,
a philosophy which may be termed activism.
This activism differs both from the older
speculation and from modern Pragmatism.
From the former it is distinguished by its
repudiation of intellectualism, by its ground-
ing of knowledge on life, and by its constant
return to the content of life as the funda-
mental and controlling fact. From Pragma-
tism it is differentiated by the fact that it
does not make the welfare of the mere man,
whether as an individual or in society, its
leading aim, but sees in man the emergence
of something superhuman, divine, and eternal,
and makes this the sure guiding star of its

xii INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

efforts ; by this means it raises them above
the contingency of the individual and the
vicissitudes of time, and gives to man's life
a worthy content.

But where endeavour is thus concentrated
chiefly on the content and connections of life,
the consideration of the general movement of
history will acquire great significance. For
the spiritual life does not lie ready to hand
in the consciousness of individuals ; it reveals
to us its depths and its goals only through
manifold experiences and hard struggles ;
these experiences and struggles, with the
development of spiritual life which they have
brought about, form the heart and core of
the movement of history. Hence history,
when regarded from the philosophical point
of view, leads us to consider the height of
spiritual life which has been already attained ;
not only so, but with regard to the different
leading problems of philosophy, the process
of tracing out the fate they have met with
in the course of the centuries is an excellent

INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR xiii

means of taking bearings and of seeing both
what in them is permanently necessary, and
what in this connection the present requires
from the thinker. This attention to history
is not meant to alienate us from the present,
but, by increasing our philosophical insight,
it should reveal to us a wider and richer
present than that of the mere moment. This
is the justification for the attempt made in
this volume to fix our position with regard
to the present tasks of philosophy by means
of an historical survey.

RUDOLF EUCKEN.

Jena.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

It is my pleasant duty to thank the friends
who have helped me in various ways. The
translation owes much to my discussions with
Mr G. G. Berry, whose keen insight has
cleared up many a difficulty. I am also much
indebted to Mr W. R. Boyce Gibson for
generously allowing me to see in manuscript
the concluding portion of his forthcoming
translation of Prof. Eucken's Lebensanschau-
ungen, and for giving me the benefit in other
ways of his intimate knowledge of Prof.
Eucken's philosophy. To Prof. L. P. Jacks
I owe the correct interpretation of the passage
from Hegel quoted on p. 54. The translation
in the " English and Foreign Philosophical
Library" does not seem to bring out the real
meaning, but it was unfortunately too late to

xvi

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

alter it. Finally, I am greatly indebted to
Prof. Eucken himself for courteously giving
me information on a considerable number of
doubtful points. For any errors that there
may be, I, of course, am solely responsible.

F. L. POGSON.

Oxford, December 1908.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Philosophy the queen of sciences, I ; ancient philosophy,
2 ; religion and philosophy, 2 ; philosophy and its oppon-
ents, 3 ; internal conflicts of philosophy, 4 ; the aim of
philosophy, 5-7 : the influence of philosophy, 8 ; philo-
sophy as the representative of necessities of thought, 9-1 1 ;
philosophy and life, u-14 ; spiritual life, 15-20 ; history,
philosophy, and the spiritual life, 21-29.

CHAPTER I

Unity and Multiplicity ..... 30-103

The systematisation of life, 30 : demand for unification,
30 ; Greek philosophy and unity, 32-34 ; Plato's doctrine
of ideas, 35 ; Aristotle's scheme of life, 37-40; the creative
activity of art, 40 ; philosophy and universal reason, 42 ;
the function of religion, 43 ; Plotinus and the search for
unity, 44 ; unity and the spiritual life, 46 ; mysticism, 47 ;
Christianity and unity, 49 ; the ethical conception of God,
49 ; the Christian conception of God, 50 ; the Greek
conception of the Deity, 51 ; exaltation of the individual,
53 ; the Church and individual freedom, 55 ; contradictions
of Christianity, 55 ; the absorption of Christianity by the
Church, 57-59 ; Scholasticism, 61 ; freedom, 63-68 ;
modern science and its aims, 68-72 ; new forms and aims
of philosophy, 72 et seq. ; individualism and society, 83 ;
personality and the world, 84 ; civilisation and the
spiritual life, 87 ; German philosophy, 88 ; the medieval
ecclesiastical system, 92 ; history and the spiritual life,
94 ; philosophy and the spiritual life, 100-103.

xvii

xviii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER II

PAGES

Change and Persistence — Time and Eternity i 04-181

The endlessness of time and the longing for eternity, 105 ;
religion and its influences, 106 ; Greek philosophy and its
influence, 1 07-1 12 ; the search for the persistent, 1 12-1 13 ;
the Greek ideal of life, 115 ; eternal rest the supreme goal
of religion, 117 ; the Christian scheme of life, 1 19-123 ;
the Church the guardian of unchangeable truth, 124 ;
classical antiquity and the beginnings of Christianity, 126 ;
Scholasticism, 126; mysticism, 127; persistence and medi-
evalism, 128 ; the Renaissance and the 'Reformation, 132 ;
"middle ages": derivation of the* term, 133; the
doctrine of evolution, 135 et seq. ; the conception of
evolution in Faust, 139 ; time and eternity, 139 et seq. ;
three phases of evolution, 1 40-1 41 ; natural science and
Positivism, 141 ; co ordination needed in spiritual work,
145 ; modern philosophy, 146 ; historical modes of thought,
151 ; natural law, 153 ; the futility of a restless life, 157 ;
the rejuvenescence of the old Mysticism, 159 ; rationalism
and optimism, 161 ; historical evolution an absurdity,
163 ; the medieval system of the Roman Catholic Church,
164-167 ; the illusory recourse to history, 167-168 ; in-
dependent work, 168 ; the movement of history, 169 ;
faith in the ultimate rationality of reality the basis of
spiritual life, 176 ; the co-operation of philosophy and the
reconciliation of time and eternity, 1 78-1 81.

CHAPTER III
The Outer World and the Inner World . 182-274

The need and use of philosophy, 182-184 ; the two
worlds, 183 et seq. ; dualism, 185-186; materialism, 187;
spiritualism, 188; monism, 188-190 ; the relation between
idealism and naturalism, 1 93- 199; Greek idealism and its
complications, 199-208 ; the later ages of antiquity and
the two worlds, 208-210 ; Christianity and the two
worlds, 211-218; Christianity the subject of constant
strife, 218 ; the fundamental conception of Christianity,
219 ; the Christian conception of the sacrament, 225 ; the
trend of modern life and the relation of the two worlds,
227-232 ; the scientific conception of the soiil, 232 ; in-
tellectual culture and the question, 234-238 ; modern

CONTENTS

xix

natural science, 238-241 ; defects of naturalism, 246-249 ;
spiritual life a new life, 256 ; religion and the spiritual
life, 262-264 ; the creative activity of art, 264-266 ;
science and the question, 266 ; the close connection of the
spiritual with the natural, 270-273.

CHAPTER IV
The Problem of Truth ..... 275-333

Truth and happiness : opposing conditions, 275 ;
Augustine and Spinoza, 277-278 ; the conception of
truth, 280-283 ; the classical idea of truth, 284-293 ;
Scepticism and truth, 291 ; Christianity and the question,
294_302 \ faith the way to truth, 294-296 ; difficulties re-
garding faith, 296 ; the Roman Catholic Church and faith,
297-298 ; faith, the remover of doubt, itself an object of
doubt, 302; the Enlightenment, 307-313 ; critical philo-
sophy, 313-319 ; constructive speculation, 319-321 ;
Positivism, 322 ; Pragmatism, 322-326 ; truth and meta-
physics, 322 -326 ; modern philosophy and truth, 327-333.

CHAPTER V

The Problem of Happiness .... 334-394

Work and happiness, 334 ; the craving after happiness,
335-337 ; a survey of world history in connection with
happiness, 337 et seq. ; the Greek idea of happiness, 338-
339 ; Plato's conception of happiness, 340-342 ; Aristotle
and happiness, 343-345 ; an examination of the ideal of
happiness of the great classical thinkers, 345— 357 ; Plotinus'
ideal of happiness, 350-355; the Christian pursuit of
happiness, 357 ; the Christian conception of pain, 360-
363 ; modern idea of happiness, 366-373 ; limitations of
knowledge and complications arising therefrom, 373 et
seq. ; aesthetic culture, 383-384 ; happiness and the
question of personality, 384-386 ; philosophy and happi-
ness, 391-394.

CONCLUSION

395-403

THE

LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

INTRODUCTION

That philosophy is not only full of problems,
but that philosophy itself as a whole is and
remains a problem is shown by the varied
estimation in which it has been held and the
disputed place which it occupies in the life of
mankind. On the one hand it is called the
queen of the sciences, and a life dedicated to
it seems the acme of human existence ; minds
of the highest rank have laboured to serve it,
and it has often intervened with great effect
to modify the whole condition of humanity.
This modifying influence, moreover, has
appeared in a great variety of ramifications.

2 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

At one time, as in the case of Plato, philosophy
has wrested pure ideals from the dark tangle
of everyday life and has held them up as sure
guiding stars to action. At another time, as
in the case of Aristotle, it has sought to grasp
the fulness of reality in a unified whole and to
penetrate the whole of life as an organizing
influence. At still another time, as in the
later ages of antiquity, it has been a support
and finally a consolation amid the cares and
troubles of life. In modern times again it
has acted as an influence in liberating men's
minds and as a torch of advancing culture.
Moreover, it has in addition carried out a
vigorous examination of the traditional condi-
tion of life and has sought to enlighten men in
the most thoroughgoing way as to the limits
of their powers. No great spiritual achieve-
ment has seemed possible without the help
and co-operation of philosophy ; whenever it
has been wanting life has lost in spontaneity,
in freedom of movement, in depth. Religion
especially has often enough experienced this

INTRODUCTION

to its grave injury. When we follow this line
of thought philosophy appears as an indispens-
able and most important part of the spiritual
possessions of humanity.

But on the other hand every survey of
human experience shows that at all times
philosophy has had its zealous opponents, who
have declared that it was superfluous and
indeed have rejected it as harmful. This is
the case with the specialist, who believes that
the work of knowledge is completely defined
when the world has been divided up among
the different scientific disciplines ; with the
practical man who regards brooding and reflec-
tion as a hindrance to keenness of action ; and,
finally, with the believer in positive religion,
who thinks that philosophy undermines the
security of faith and fills men with proud self-
confidence. But more dangerous than any
attack from without is the fact that philosophy
is uncertain of itself, that its work is dislocated,
that it is divided into different schools, each
one of which, in order to maintain itself, thinks

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

it necessary to refute all the others. This con-
flict threatens to remain unsettled and without
result ; it seems in the course of the centuries
to grow rather than to diminish. For whether
the Sophists were in the right with their
subjectivism, or Socrates with his doctrine of
concepts, whether happiness in life is to be
sought by the way of the Stoa or by that of
Epicurus, is still an open question. Of course
the individual actors have withdrawn from the
stage, but their ideas have remained and
passionately continue the fight, like the spirits
on the Catalaunian Fields. From this stand-
point it remains incomprehensible how philo-
sophy can have gained a deep influence over
thought and life ; but if this influence must be
accepted as an indisputable fact, we are con-
fronted by a riddle which necessarily impels
us to take our bearings both as to the task and
the position of philosophy.

It is true that an attempt has been made to
get rid of the above contradiction by means of
a conception of philosophy which would make

INTRODUCTION

it acceptable to all : the only question is
whether, in such a case, everything is not lost
which lends it independence and value. In
earlier times as well as at the present day
it has often been held up as the sole aim of
philosophy to co-ordinate the work of the
different sciences and to blend their results
into a unified picture : the more investiga-
tion becomes specialized, it is said, the more
necessary is a special discipline which should
concern itself with any unity that may
be left ; in surveying and discussing the pre-
suppositions, the methods, and the results of
the individual sciences, philosophy has an
important task to which no objection can be
raised. No doubt there is a task for philo-
sophy here, but every attempt to gain a more
exact conception of it gives rise to com-
plications and difference of opinion. How are
we to conceive of this surveying and co-
ordinating activity ? If it is bound to take
the sciences as they come, if it has no right
of revision, if it can venture on no further

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

development, then to be sure it has escaped
all danger, but at the same time it has lost all
significance. For if it is thus limited it
becomes merely a registering of the results of
the particular sciences, an encyclopaedia which
is not a genuine science, though a generous
use of language might give it the name. In
particular it is hard to see how a mere encyclo-
paedia could have exerted upon thought and
life those deeply disturbing and fruitfully
elevating influences which the examples of
Plato and Kant are enough to show have
actually proceeded from it. And what if the
individual sciences do not harmonize without
demur, if bitter conflicts arise, if, for example,
one department of science contends for the
exclusive operation of mechanical causality,
but another craves at least some shred of
freedom therefrom ? Shall philosophy quietly
suffer such a contradiction to remain and be
ready to submit to it ? According to the
above conception it would not have the
slightest remedy.

INTRODUCTION

On the other hand one who desiderates for
philosophy a separate domain of activity may
perhaps be inclined to think that it carries out
a synthesis of the manifold in accordance with
the particular nature of the contemplating
subject ; that it is not so much a science
governed by strict rules as an unfettered art,
and that it therefore remains inseparably bound
up with the nature of the individual. Ac-
cording to this conception, philosophy would
offer an incalculable variety of pictures of the
world, some of which would quickly fade,
while to others their inherent spiritual power
would give the capacity to subjugate men's
minds and to last for thousands of years.
This view seems to be favoured by the fact
that the history of philosophy shows us a great
abundance of figures. There is no doubt that
this conception contains a certain amount of
truth ; the subjective element is particularly
important in philosophy, for a man's philosophy
can least of all be separated from the whole
of his personality. But on the other hand

8 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the influence which philosophy has exercised
throughout history remains unexplained. For
how could subjective pictures of that kind
cause such passionate excitement and stir, or
give rise to so much love and hate ? Besides
this, philosophy does not merely offer an
unlimited number of individual pictures, but
it also shows persistent types which seem to
embod)^ the fundamental tendencies of human
existence and effort. Hellenism especially has
given rise to an abundance of types to which
humanity has remained faithful as it has gone
on its way, and which are continually producing
new effects. In spite of all the progress of
knowledge, Platonism and Aristotelianism,
Stoicism and Epicureanism still maintain their
position. Besides, it would be incompre-
hensible how philosophy as a purely individual
and subjective reflection of reality could affect
the contents of thought and alter the conditions
of life, or how it could be for humanity a source
of freedom, of security, and of rejuvenation.
Philosophy has been often enough a com-

INTRODUCTION

pelling force which has transformed the whole
of the work of the spirit. Whence this com-
pulsion if it rests purely on the caprice of the
individual ?

It is true that an attempt has been made to
avoid the danger of such a relapse into pure
subjectivity by regarding philosophy as the
representative of necessities of thought which
have not been sufficiently emphasized in every-
day life and in the other sciences. By un-
folding and fully developing these necessities
philosophy has the right and the duty of
transcending its starting-point and reorganiz-
ing its representation of reality. It thus
acquires compelling force and is bound, in
particular, to set itself the task of radically
removing all the contradictions which appear
in our world of thought. This seems to lift
its task above the risk of pure subjectivity and
to make it a matter which concerns the whole
of humanity. But this conception, too, con-
tains more complications than are apparent at
first sight. The experience of history shows

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

that there is no unanimity as to the exact
nature of that which is to count as a necessity
of thought. Great thinkers have absolutely
contradicted one another on this subject:
Hegel, for example, saw in contradictions a
power favourable to the production and pro-
motion of spiritual life, while to Herbart, on
the contrary, they seemed absolutely intoler-
able. Does not, then, the search for necessities
of thought bring us back to the very subject-
ivity beyond which it was to carry us ? And
we may be doubtful of the right of a thinking
which rests purely upon itself to impose its
demands on the totality of things. Thinking,
in its immediateness, is something which goes
on in man : if things are to conform to thought,
does there not arise a merely human interpreta-
tion of reality which may be quite foreign to
reality itself? But the strongest motive in
the pursuit of truth is the desire to get beyond
the small and narrow circle of the merely
human and to gain full participation in the
life of things themselves, in the breadth and

INTRODUCTION

truth of the universe. It is, above all, this
inner expansion and liberation, this carrying
of man beyond himself, which makes the work
of great thinkers valuable and helpful to us ;
a merely human truth is a contradiction in
terms, is no truth at all. If we cannot thus
be sure of some sort of inner connection with
the universe in our thinking, if we cannot
found our thinking on a wider and deeper
life, then philosophy does not exist in the
sense in which it was understood at the height
of its activity, and in which it has, as a matter
of fact, influenced mankind.

We are thus thrown back from thought on
to life — life as it co-ordinates itself from within
to some sort of unified whole, directs its powers
to particular ends, and adjusts itself to the
totality of its environment. We need only
examine the individual thinkers more exactly
as regards the inner texture of their work and
the aims which have actuated them, to become
aware that, behind what stands before us as
fully accomplished, there lies a particular

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

shaping of life, and that here is the point of
division which separates thinkers and drives
them to do battle with one another. Only
because it was founded in such a life has
thought attained a finished form as well as a
constraining necessity ; only from this starting-
point has it gained the power of taking reality
up into itself and striving after inner illumina-
tion. The products of thinking have varied
very largely for the reason that, corresponding
to the connection with life which is the founda-
tion of thought, the work of knowledge has
been from the first conceived differently. The
failure to recognize this connection between
thought and life is mostly to blame for the
fact that the strife of the philosophers with
one another has turned out to be so unedifying
and so fruitless. The contest always ran the
risk of moving in a circle, because it never got
back to the point where in reality the division
lies, and because it treated as the main thing
what was the effect of deeper causes. This
connection of thought with life enables us also

INTRODUCTION

to understand that in the case of philosophy
the work of knowledge is so closely connected
with the nature of the personality.

But this connection of thought with life
does not seem to lead us out of our complica-
tions to a secure standpoint. The danger
again arises of a wide separation and division
of mankind into separate circles. For, after
all, different types of life do develop and range
themselves side by side and put forth equal
claims. Who is to decide to which of them
belongs the higher right and leadership, and
which, therefore, may produce a general picture
of reality that should be reckoned as definitive ?
Besides, this gives no explanation how a move-
ment which arises in man could go beyond
him, bring him into connection with the great
world, and put him in possession of its meaning.
And without this there is no knowledge of
truth in the sense in which philosophy strives
to attain it.

All these discussions come in the end to
this, that the existence of philosophy is bound

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

up with definite conditions which are by no
means perfectly obvious, and which no mere
acuteness or reflection can bring to light, but
as to whose existence or non-existence only
experience can decide. If thought is to have
a root and a basis in life, and if at the same
time it is to have a constraining power and a
character of universality, there is only one
possibility. There must appear within reach
of man a life which can rise above divisions
and can counteract them, a life, further, which
can develop out of its own movement compre-
hensive connections and, indeed, can show
itself active in moulding the world. Finally,
it must be a life which not only touches and
interprets what it lays hold of from the outside,
but shapes it from within and admits it to its
own depths. Only if man is able in this way
to share in a universal life and thereby outgrow
the limits of his particular nature, can his
thinking advance from a mere cognition of
things to a true knowledge. Thus there
results the possibility and, indeed, the neces-

INTRODUCTION

sity of a new way of looking at the world in
contrast to that practised by the individual
sciences.

The question then is whether we have evi-
dence of a life of this kind, which shapes our
world and places us in a different fundamental
relationship to reality. We believe that we
can confidently answer this question in the
affirmative. For we only need to gain a
keener apprehension of what is called spiritual
life, and to set it in sharper relief against the
environment in which human existence in-
volves it, to become aware that it offers the
very thing which we desire and seek. Spiritual
life is, above all, the formation of a coherent
system in life. In it not merely the poten-
tialities of the subject are aroused and height-
ened, but confronting the subject there arises
a field, and indeed a whole kingdom, of an ob-
jective nature. Subject and object are compre-
hended in a self-contained activity and assist
each other's further development. Nothing
short of such a comprehension of the two sides

16 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

can supply life with contents and values which,
with all their inwardness, possess an indubitable
superiority over all merely human powers and
opinions. It is in this way that whole pro-
vinces such as science and art, jurisprudence
and morality, grow up and develop their own
contents, their own motives, their own laws.
These provinces, however, strive towards unity
and finally coalesce in a unified world. In
fact, they belong on the subjective side from
the very beginning to such a unified whole,
and only in connection with it can they
solve their own problem. Thus we find that
within man there is something which goes
beyond him ; he himself must become some-
thing different, and his whole life assumes
the form of a problem when a unified
world thus makes its appearance in his life
and distinguishes itself from that which is
merely human.

But what is the significance of this new life
in relation to the whole of reality ? This can
only be estimated by comparing it with that

INTRODUCTION

from which it distinguishes itself and which it
strives to transcend. In the first place, the
realm of nature surrounds us all and penetrates
deep into the human soul. Here we see reality
dissected into purely individual elements. Life
is resolved into the relations of these elements ;
it passes in purely individual processes, and
does not get beyond mere matter-of-fact. For
there exists here no life of the whole, which
should comprehend the diversity, take it up
into itself and thence draw profit. But the
amount of psychical life which exists here has
not yet reached the stage at which it might be
called an individual life. For in the realm of
nature psychical life does not attain any in-
dependence ; it remains a mere concomitant
phenomenon. It does not stand out as an end
in itself, but forms a mere means and instru-
ment for the preservation of living beings in
the hard struggle for existence. But the great
change that ensues when spiritual life comes
upon the scene is that now the inner life

becomes independent and begins to prepare

18 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

for itself a world of its own. This change,
with its introduction of an essentially new
kind of life, and its construction of a world
from within, with its own particular contents,
values, and order, can never be the work of
man by himself. It is only to be understood
as a movement of the whole of reality itself,
which surrounds man, takes hold of him,
and drives him on. Thus the movement
towards spiritual life appears as a movement
of reality towards an independent conscious
existence. A depth of the world is revealed
which before was hidden, and this gives rise to
a complete transformation which must produce
an essentially new view of reality. But this
new life, by the mere fact of its having con-
structed a state of civilization which exists
side by side with what is purely natural, has
proved its power to make its way in opposition
to pre-existing forces. The achievement of
civilization, when at its height, in producing
essentially new objects and essentially new
human characters, can have been made possible

INTRODUCTION

only by the force of an independent spiritual
life, seeking to unfold itself.

With the recognition of this movement
there is a change in the whole representation
of our spiritual work. It is no longer accessory
to the main body of reality, and it is not a
private concern of man by himself, but in it
we recognize a portion of a world-movement,
of which mankind is the servant. From this
standpoint, that work can claim superiority
both over isolated individuals and over all
mere subjectivism.

But what is true of spiritual work generally
applies also to philosophy. Man does not,
out of his own inner consciousness and possibly
quite at random, put a particular complexion
on the world, but his philosophy can only
possess truth and power so far as the life of
the world comes to clear consciousness in it
and reveals its own depth. The co-ordination
of the manifold, which philosophy undertakes,
cannot be imposed upon reality from the out-
side, but must come from within it and conduce

20 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to its unfolding. The task of philosophy now
is to enhance and thus to foster that co-ordina-
tion in the work of thought. In opposition
to the circumstances of humanity it will have
to be the champion and enforcer of the neces-
sities of the spiritual life, and bring home clearly
to man the connections of that life. From
this point of view it is quite comprehensible
how, throughout the course of history, phil-
osophy was bound to accompany the life and
the struggles of humanity, and how it could
lift them to a higher level. It was able to do
this because it was not an opinion of man by
himself, but because it was a work and a demand
of the spiritual life. It is only as a philosophy
of spiritual life in this sense that philosophy
can attain to independence and maintain the
position assigned to it by its friends. And
from this point of view its work can be seen
to be a connected task which is common to
the whole of humanity.

But at the same time, this conception ex-
plains why philosophy is exposed to so much

INTRODUCTION

uncertainty and strife. For spiritual life is
not something that is ready-made for us, but is
a difficult problem — in fact, the problem of
problems. Certainly our being must be some-
how grounded in it if we are to make an
effort after it, but as far as our consciousness
and activity are concerned, we must first win
it and make it our own : only thus can it gain
a clear shape and a definite content. But this
further opening up takes place in the indi-
vidual not so much through reflection or
imagination as through the labour of the
whole and as the work of history. What first
makes history in the distinctively human sense
possible, is the fact that here a revelation
of spiritual life gets started and gains ground
as the development of a new stage of reality.
But the testimony of experience shows that
the course of this historical movement is by
no means sure and simple. In the first place,
spiritual life has no domain of its own in the
human sphere and no independent starting-
point, but it develops out of our life in

22 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

nature and society and cannot dispense with
it. In doing so it does not appear from the
beginning as a whole, but starts from separate
points and gradually extends to larger con-
nections, which again may diverge from one
another. And its progress through history
is not orderly and sure, but resembles rather a
groping and seeking. It makes a step forward,
but encounters insurmountable obstacles and
is often driven back a long way ; new starting
points are tried, but they lead to a similar
result. The life is often split into opposites,
and then again the impulse towards reconcilia-
tion gains the upper hand : much drops out of
sight, only to come up again later and exercise
new influence, and so the whole becomes more '
and more complicated and involved. In par-
ticular a permanent complication proceeds
from the relation of the spiritual life to man.
Spiritual life stands in need of the feelings and
faculties of man, and so far as it gains these it
raises him above that which is merely human.
But at the same time this merely human

INTRODUCTION

element persists and is always ready to drag
down the spiritual life to its own level. It
does this especially when no great spiritual
tension and no powerful spiritual creative
effort exercises a counteracting influence. At
such times it almost appears as if this merely
human element looked upon the spiritual life
as an enemy, and would like to take vengeance
on it for its troublesome interference. Noth-
ing contributes more to impress a particular
character on human history than the fact that
spiritual life has to develop in the unsuitable
and indeed hostile medium of human existence.
But if spiritual life has often been dragged
down to the level of the merely human, it has
not submitted for any length of time to this
degradation. It has always escaped again,
and, however much it might be disintegrated,
it has always made a fresh effort to regain
its unity ; in fact, throughout all the mistakes
and passions of men it has made substantial
progress in self-realization. It has been able
to liberate life and thought from the tyranny

24 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of the mere passing moment, and by separat-
ing the temporal from the eternal, the human
from the spiritual, to gather up the results of
thousands of years, so as to be taken in at one
view. It has been able to reawaken what to
all external appearance had perished, and to
hold fast everything that it recognized as
valuable in a present which is above time and
includes time. Philosophy in particular, just
as spiritual life generally, takes its stand on
this time-including present. History, however,
appears on this view not as a kingdom of pure
reason, but as a scene where a certain amount
of reason wins through in the teeth of enormous
resistance.

From this point of view the movement of
history, with its elevation of spiritual life above
the position and caprice of mere man, gains a
special significance for philosophy, and in fact
becomes an introduction to a philosophy of
the spiritual life. For, in revealing all that has
been unfolded of independent spiritual life, it
shows what possibilities our life contains of

INTRODUCTION

being raised to a higher inward level, and also
what oppositions arise in this connection and
have to be overcome in some way or other.
It goes on to exhibit the conditions and the
demands of spiritual creative effort, and the
presuppositions and environment from which
special kinds of spiritual life have sprung. It
shows the dominating facts both within and
as opposed to the spiritual life, and also the
directions in which the movement progresses.
It can further operate to free our work from
all that is casual and temporary, and to bring
it into line with the necessary course of spiritual
life so far as it has been revealed in the history
of the world. Our efforts will not only acquire
thereby more breadth and freedom, but may
also gain a stronger and securer position
through the recognition of the great guiding
lines of the general movement of history.
Naturally all this can only take place according
to the capacity of the individual life on which
the task is laid of gaining an inner mastery
over the materials provided by history. For

26 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

without such individual exertion history cannot
impart or teach anything: the contents of
history must first be awakened and revivified
by our own work before they can be of any
significance or use to our own life. If we
thus address ourselves to the spiritual content,
the revivifying of the general movement of
history takes the form of a comparative survey
of the spiritual possessions which we have
hitherto acquired, and a summons to develop
and secure these possessions against the in-
fluences and accidents of the moment. We
need not waste any time in proving that the
present, with its sharp oppositions, its violent
cleavage, and ominous levelling down of life,
and its want of any ruling aim, stands in
particularly urgent need of being supplemented
and developed in the way we have sketched.
Historical study must press on with particular
insistence to fresh philosophical work, to a
creative activity which will transform phil-
osophy by clearly proving the untenability
of the present spiritual state and the necessity

INTRODUCTION

of a new type of culture. But in this respect
the spiritual requirements which are involved,
not so much in the time as in the general
position in world history, are bound to set
philosophy definite tasks and point it in
definite directions.

A treatment of history like this, which com-
bines the tracing out of the rise and growth of
spiritual life within the sphere of humanity with
the search for a standpoint for philosophical
work, can be undertaken in different ways.
We desire to undertake it in such a way as
to emphasize some of the leading lines of
development, to exhibit the problems which
there await us, and to show the movements,
experiences, and revelations of life which have
resulted from them. It may seem that out-
wardly we are giving ourselves up entirely to
history, but our aim is always directed towards
philosophy. What history has brought us is
not reckoned as merely past, but we try to
make it present to us as living, and at the
same time to gain from it points of support

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

both for the guidance of spiritual life and for
philosophy. In these leading lines we shall
find common features, in fact an inner con-
nection will be evident through all the diver-
sity ; but a more exact estimation of this is to
be made at the end. We thus arrange our
sections so that we progress gradually from
general sketches to a more definite content,
and so allow the character and the demands
of the whole to become continually more
apparent. Let us then treat in succession the
problems of unity and multiplicity, of rest and
movement, of the outer and the inner worlds,
and finally the problem of truth and the pro-
blem of happiness. As far as material is con-
cerned, let us limit our investigation to tracing
out the movement from the rise of Greek
civilization to the present day. This is not
merely because it lies nearest to us externally,
but also because no other historical complex
contains so much spiritual movement or has
produced such an abundance of life and, amid
violent metamorphoses, has passed through so

INTRODUCTION

many experiences. But this is the point, above
all, for philosophical contemplation. If we go
through history in this way we do not lose
ourselves in an incalculable vastness, but, with
all the abundance of material, we are all the
time at home. It is a kind of introspection,
not so much of the individual as of the whole,
which we are here striving after, and intro-
spection is to-day, as at all times, the best
approach to philosophy.

CHAPTER 1

Unity and Multiplicity

Nature, as it lies open to our view, displays
a mere juxtaposition of elements, with no inner
connection. On the natural level life does not
get beyond the stage of mere correlations.
But on the other hand, wherever spiritual life
makes itself felt we find the desire to sur-
mount the stage of mere juxtaposition, to
establish an inner connection, and, in fact, to
systematize the whole of life. All the main
directions in which our spiritual work finds
its outlet involve the effort to overcome an
opposition and the demand for some sort of
unification. Thus the struggle for truth seeks
to overcome the separation between men and
things, between subject and object, between

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 31

thought and existence. With the good, in
the narrower sense of the word, it is a case
of getting free from the pettiness of the ego,
breaking through the original narrowness, and
attaining inner solidarity. Beauty too seeks
to overcome an opposition in endeavouring to
make the external conform completely to its
own internal standards. But just as spiritual
life exercises a unifying influence in an ex-
ternal environment, so too, in itself, it strives
to assume the form of a coherent whole and
gives rise to an inner solidarity of work. It
is a matter not for the individual man, but
for the whole race ; it strives to attain not
merely individual truths but a realm of
truth, which envelops and holds together
the individuals, and which, indeed, lays claim
to a validity of its own, independent of man-
kind. It is very much the same with the
good and the beautiful ; however much con-
troversy and dissension may prevail in this
connection, even the controversy would be
incomprehensible without the belief in a

32 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

common truth and without the impelling
power of this truth.

But though the striving for unity is an
incontestable and fundamental impulse of all
spiritual life, it yet involves a difficult pro-
blem, which cannot be attacked by the indivi-
dual but only by the age-long toil of humanity.
For the question is, how the unification can
be attained, and what form the whole must
assume in order to take up the diversity into
itself and overcome the oppositions. Many
different attempts and much unrest will meet
the eyes of him who makes a spiritual pilgrim-
age through the centuries. In accordance
with our plan we begin with the life of the
Greeks.

From the very beginning the philosophy of
the Greeks shows the impulse towards unity.
Their first thinkers, the sages of Ionia, turn at
once to the search for a single fundamental
substance, and the Pythagoreans co-ordinate
the wealth of phenomena into a coherent
universe, a cosmos. Even the exclusiveness

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 33

of a unitary being finds early defenders in the
Eleatics, and they do not shrink from reduc-
ing multiplicity to mere appearance. But
Greek life clings too closely to the rich
diversity of reality to be able to give it up
completely : hence the problem assumes the
form of discovering a definite relation between
unity and multiplicity, a firm co-ordination of
the diversity of things. Its solution is reached
in close connection with movements that take
place in the general life of the time, in contact
of the work of thought with the state of
political and social development. As usually
happens, the beginnings of this development
show us individuals in strict subjection, in
complete dependence on the order and custom
of the community, under the yoke of autho-
rity and tradition, which is not yet felt as
oppressive. But gradually the individual gains
in power, in freedom of movement, in inde-
pendence ; he begins to inquire into the right
and reason of the systems in which he finds
himself ; he holds himself continually more

84 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

aloof from them, and feels that he is personally
responsible for his own life. But then the
danger at once arises that the subject may
break up all systems, make himself the
measure of all things, and, as a logical con-
sequence, recognize the validity of no ends
except those that further his own well-being.
This gives rise to the most dangerous crisis,
and life appears likely to suffer a complete
dissolution. The Sophists with their subjec-
tivism make this very evident. In such a
convulsion nothing can be of any assistance
except man's own spiritual work : it is this
alone which can attempt to build up from
within the coherent system which the visible
world no longer affords, and what it here
undertook for the first time is in reality a
problem of a lasting nature which our own
day too must face. With the Greeks it was
pre-eminently philosophy which took upon
itself this problem. A solution was sought
by affirming the existence of a world of
thought raised above all human circumstances

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 35

and opinions and firmly established over against
them. Plato's doctrine of Ideas brings the
power of genius to the execution of this task,
and for him the constituents of that world
more nearly acquire the character of forms
endowed with fulness of life. These forms
with all their diversity unite to form a whole ;
the work of this whole, moreover, is to give
movement and elevation to human existence ;
it supplies it with a deeper foundation and the
power of counteracting the distraction from
which it previously suffered. On the basis
of scientific work there thus arises an artistic
ordering of life which brings about a peculiar
combination of unity and multiplicity. The
thought of the One takes precedence, but the
Many are not in the least sacrificed, though
each part must seek its place and its task within
the whole in order to carry out its special work
in this position. But it cannot do this without
recognizing limits and overcoming the crude
impulses of nature, and thus it is ennobled and,
in fact, spiritualized by the whole. Thus life

86 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

is organized from top to bottom, marked off
into stages, made symmetrical and harmonious,
and everything which is merely natural is
brought under the dominion of the spirit.

A movement of this kind affects human
endeavour in all directions and gives it a
peculiar character. On this view thought is
not a critical sifting and analysing, a pressing
forward to the most minute elements, but it is
rather a comprehensive survey of the diversity
of things, and a disentangling of the funda-
mental structure of the universe from the
chaos which it presents at first sight. Its
main movement is from the whole to the
parts, and it is especially the task of philoso-
phical knowledge to put everything that exists
and everything that happens in its proper
place, and to understand it from what it does
for the whole. And the psychic life of man
has also a general work to perform, which
includes its individual parts and stages. It is
of special importance in the human com-
munity to counteract the isolation of in-

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 37

dividuals, with their caprice and selfishness.
The thought arises of a state whose structure
is based on knowledge and seeks to enforce
its own realization. An essentially elevating
effect is expected from the direction of the
whole towards spiritual goods and from the
division and organization of work by a grada-
tion of classes. Even the severest conse-
quences, such as the extraordinary communism
of the higher classes, are not shirked if they
seem to be necessary in order to strike at the
root of egoism. But all this surrender to the
whole does not mean any complete sacrifice of
the individuals, for in this arrangement they
satisfy their own nature as well, and thereby
attain to complete happiness.

Aristotle's scheme of life is closely related
to Plato's, but still the modifications which he
introduced are significant. Less importance
is attached to the part played by art, and the
power of co-ordination which results from
taking the point of view of art is less em-
phasized, though it is not entirely neglected.

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

But, on the other hand, the classifying and
organizing power of thought is given the
widest scope, and it is especially the conception
of the unfolding of life, of existence becoming
fully active, that provides the guiding lines
for thought. It is here in particular that
human activity displays a systematic char-
acter : the world, both in general and in detail,
is regarded under the governing conception of
an articulated whole, an organic unity of life.
Aristotle is particularly successful in enforcing
the idea that in the case of an organic living
being a large number of organs and functions
is subordinated to a comprehensive unity of
life, and that it is only from this point of
view, by help of the idea of an end, that
they can be understood. This conception
of an organism is finally transferred to the
whole universe ; this too forms a complete
and rounded unity which tolerates nothing
" episodic."1 Still more than in the case of

1 Cf. Aristotle, Met. 1090b 19, ovk eoi*€ 8* fj <£iW
i7T€icroSLio8rjs ovcra Ik tCjv (facuvo[xivu)v tücnrep p.o\6rjpa TpaycoSia.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 39

Plato we thus find one fundamental conviction
extending over all departments. Thinking
becomes the logical organization of the whole
of reality, and, while prepared to recognize all
particularity, it never allows the individual
to become separated from the whole. Simple
and fundamental thoughts govern all depart-
ments, and though they may appear to be
disparate they are still kept together by the
bond of analogy. Psychic life, too, is re-
quired to develop every faculty, but there
must be an activity of the whole which in-
cludes all particular activities and measures
them by its own standards. The superiority
of the whole acquires particular force and
vividness when we come to the idea of the
state. Just as each member can only live
and work in connection with the whole
organism, man can only be fully man in the
community. And thus it can be maintained
that the state is prior to the individual.
But at the same time the utmost differentia-
tion is desired within the state, and the

W THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

heart and soul of every man is called upon
to co-operate.

The combined work of both thinkers has
held up to life a stable and coherent system,
and satisfied in a characteristic way the desire
for unity. Unification is attained by the
alliance of clear thought with the creative
activity of art. The main achievement of
this philosophy is its vigorous and thorough
organization of the whole range of existence ;
it leaves nothing outside but takes up every-
thing from the greatest to the least, gives it
definite shape, and quickens and ennobles it.
Man here displays his capacity of forming a
whole in thought, retaining within this whole
a rich diversity of elements, and making it a
centre from which to bring the whole range
of reality into an inwardly coherent system.
The endeavour to attain unity in this manner
has persisted throughout the whole course of
history ; it has often entered upon new spheres
of activity with rejuvenated powers, and seems
to be indispensable for the spiritual appro-

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 41

priation of the breadth and fulness of existence.
But as a leading synthesis of life, this philo-
sophy had presuppositions which met with a
continually increasing opposition. Such a
synthesis not only needs pre-eminent spiritual
power to carry it out, but it also presupposes
as objectively existing a tendency on the part
of things towards union, an inner harmony of
reality, which the further movement of life
made continually more uncertain. In the
first place, this synthesis of life did not retain
its leading position in the following centuries.
When the separation between philosophy and
the particular sciences becomes wider, and the
former comes to be regarded predominantly as
wisdom in the conduct of life, we no longer
find simple fundamental thoughts exercising
control over the whole range of reality. In-
dividuals are still less inclined to submit to
the constraint which is commended by Plato
and Aristotle. As the break-up of the old
systematizations of life becomes increasingly
apparent, men are more and more concerned

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to ensure that the individual shall stand firm
on his own basis and be independent of all
environment. Philosophy is particularly suc-
cessful in this aim when it occupies man with
the thought of the Universe, and promises him
victory over every obstacle if he realizes
strongly the presence of the Universal Reason.
The complete emancipation of the individual
finds its classical expression particularly in the
doctrine of the Stoics : it is here that there
arises the conception of a personality superior
to the world, and participation in the universal
thought lends dignity and value to human
existence. Another result is that all men
enter into an invisible connection, they become
conscious of an inner relationship, a solidarity
embracing all that is human.

But if men are thrown on their own
resources to grasp and realize the universal
thought, it is only heroic individuals of
original force who will succeed. But such
men are scarce at all times, and this solution
became especially unsatisfactory in propor-

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 43

tion as the approaching break-up of the
ancient world increased the feeling of in-
security, of weakness, and of need. The per-
plexities of life finally appear too great for
man to meet out of his own resources. This
gives rise to a continually increasing craving
after religion, and finally to a movement in
the direction of religion. Hence the endeavour
after unity now takes on a religious rather
than an artistic character. Unity is nowr
sought not so much by producing an all-
embracing co-ordination of the diversity of
things, as by recourse to an existence which
is raised above all multiplicity and forms its
ground. But although with the Greeks
multiplicity was never degraded to mere
appearance, as it was with the Indians, and
though for this reason the Greeks never
embraced an exclusive monotheism, yet they
came more and more to attach significance
to that which is individual only so far as it
gives expression to the unity of the universe.
This gives to life a powerful stimulus and

44 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

impetus, but it involves the loss of the
organizing influence which was exercised by
the older creative activity. It was Plotinus
in particular who gave a philosophical shape
to the new tendency, and in this connection
philosophy takes a quite new direction. It
was formerly the function of religion to
minister to the happiness and especially the
tranquillity of man ; it was a mere means to
his well- being ; but now the centre of gravity
is transferred from individuals to the universe,
and it is only from the universe that the
individual receives life and being. We find
here a single life which sustains and pervades
the wrhole range of reality and exhibits it as
its own development. All the diversity of
things is dependent on this unitary life, and
everything tends to return to it. Many
metaphors are employed in the attempt to
show how the One can give rise to the rich
diversity of the world without losing itself
anywhere or striving to transcend itself. It
resembles a light which sends forth its rays

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 45

far and wide without diminishing its own
brightness ; it is like the fountain from which
all things proceed but which itself continues
to flow inexhaustibly ; or it resembles the root
of a tree which shoots up above the ground,
but which is not merged into its own un-
folding. In these modes of connection the
core of spiritual life and also of philosophy
consists entirely in the search for unity and
the apprehension of it. All the different
domains of life and philosophy are only
particular ways of reaching unity. But since
the final unity lies beyond all special forms
and all concepts, it follows that thought, even
when its powers are strained to the utmost,
is no longer equal to the claim which is made
upon it. It is only immediate apprehension
which can put us in possession of this unity.
Thought passes into a formless feeling, a sub-
jective mood which cannot be expressed in
words, in which it desires nothing but unity.
By this process thought brings about its own
destruction as pure thought, but this violent

46 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

convulsion results in feeling becoming inde-
pendent, and there arises a new type of
psychical experience which is both self-con-
tained and self-sufficing.

In the detailed carrying out of this tendency
life is either shaped on the model of a hierarchy
or it receives a mystical turn. The former
scheme leaves the diversity of things, but
introduces a fixed order into it by recognizing
throughout a continuous chain of life. For
Spiritual Life proceeds from the original unity
as the first stage, and on this there depend
the further stages of Soul and of Nature.
Each in its place receives life from the order
of being immediately above it, and conveys it
from itself to that which is below it. Through
a connection of this kind, even that which
might seem to be imperfect as far as itself is
concerned gains a certain value. It is only
through a misapprehension of this connection
that anyone can imagine that he has discovered
evil in the world, since what seems to be evil
is in reality only a lesser good. This concep-

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 47

tion of gradation and the downward com-
munication of life was destined to attain to
great influence in the domain of Christianity.

Mysticism, on the contrary, puts the
individual into immediate relationship with
the infinite life, and aspires to steep him in
this life to such an extent that it becomes
his own. By getting rid of everything that
makes for separation and distinction, by casting
off the chains of what men call happiness, and
by freeing himself from all the narrowness
and insufficiency of the mere unit, the mystic
believes that in extinction itself he gains an
incomparably higher life and genuine blessed-
ness. It is here that we first recognize clearly
the power which the thought of a total
surrender of the ego and of absorption into
an infinite life can exercise over the human
soul. The fact that man can completely
renounce the merely human and can give up
the whole wealth of reality without thereby
falling into the void, seems to assure him of
his capacity for rising superior to the world,

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and to bring him into close connection with
the ultimate depths of the universe. Hence
he seems to himself to be nowhere greater
than in such complete surrender of his separate-
ness. But the danger of this movement, as
well as its greatness, consists just in this con-
centration of life on one point. It is, of course,
this concentration which has given rise to the
thought of a purely internal world, and the
recognition of the immediate presence of
infinite life in the individual soul has revealed
a refuge which is open at all times. But at
the same time the stripping off of all particu-
larity forces life to give up all detailed content
and all penetration and organization of reality.
But even when this loss is recognized, this
mode of thought remains an indispensable
element in all development of independent
spirituality. It not only persists throughout
the middle ages, but comes into prominence
in modern times in new shapes, and shows
that it is still powerful even at the present
day. If we give up the immediate presence

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY

of infinite being in the soul, the life of the
soul must inevitably and immediately lose in
depth and spontaneity.

The relation of Christianity to the problem
of unity and multiplicity is by no means simple.
Different, and in fact opposite, tendencies are
engaged in conflict against one another, and
though this may give rise to much confusion
and error, it also produces much movement
and progress in life. The mere fact that
Christianity is distinctively and characteristic-
ally an ethical religion, has diverse tendencies.
Morality has its end in action, and therefore
demands both self-activity and self-sufficiency
on the part of the individual ; but religion gains
power only where man is conscious of his
weakness and seeks help from higher powers.
The ethical element prevails chiefly in the
conception of God, which is essentially differ-
ent from that of the Greek world. For Greek
thought the divine is closely bound up and

intimately united with the totality of the

50 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

world ; and though, later on, it was regarded
as raised above all sensible existence, it never
detaches itself from the world as an inde-
pendent power, and does not take up an inde-
pendent stand over against it. Hence its
activity seems to be not so much a free action
as a process of nature, which is only raised to
the spiritual level. It is represented as a
flowing out, a shining forth, a going forth, etc. :
in every case as something which happens
from necessity.

Christianity, on the contrary, in close con-
nection with later Judaism, regards God as
a Spirituality who transcends the world and
is self - existing and self-sufficing. He is
thought of as free in His action, and His
self-manifestation is regarded as spirit coming
into touch with spirit. There is no doubt that,
especially in popular thought, this may give
rise to the danger of degrading God to the
level of human ideas and interests, the danger
of anthropomorphism. But however far this
may have spread, it is not the whole of the

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 51

matter. All the mistakes that have been made
ought not to prevent us from recognizing that
it was in Christianity that the movement
towards a self-existent and active Spirituality
was first carried out on any large scale,
and that it was religion, in the ethical form
which it assumes in Christianity, that first led
to the recognition of such a Being. To the
change in the conception of the divine Being
there corresponds a new relation of man to
Him. The Greek sought to draw near to the
Deity on the heights of philosophy, by pushing
knowledge to its utmost limits. He sought
complete union with the Divine ; but when this
is attained, life does not return to its starting-
point to make something newer and higher
out of it. But this is what takes place in
Christianity, because the relation to the Deity
opens up new depths of life in the individual,
and makes him, even in his particularity, an
object of the divine love and care. The indi-
vidual, who is accustomed to be treated with
such indifference by nature and society, gains

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

an infinite worth from such a relationship, and
ventures to regard himself as an end in him-
self, but at the same time he finds that he has
a task which takes precedence of any general
extension of his activity. This holds good for
all men without distinction : it is not measured
and limited by any outward results that have
been achieved, but depends on the general
nature and bent of the soul, on the active
moral force which it shows. This forms a
great contrast to Greek thought, which could
not make union with the transcendental
unity a matter of philosophical knowledge
without encountering great differences between
one man and another, and finding that only a
few were called to the full knowledge of God.
The problem of recruiting all men for the
spiritual task is one which, in the province of
civilization to which we belong, first gained
recognition by the agency of Christianity, and,
though the task contains enormous complexities,
in particular, the danger lest spiritual work
should be subordinated to the power of the

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 53

merely human, once having been recognized
and acknowledged it can never again be put
into the background. The fact, too, that in
Christian thought, which is determined by
ethical considerations, the Greek ideal of justice
gives way to the ideal of love, tends also to
the exaltation of the individual in general and
of each separate individual in particular. If,
on the one hand, outward achievements decided
the place of the individual in the whole, that
which was mean and feeble could never receive
any sort of recognition. But on the other
hand it does gain a certain value if every man
finds that the task he has to face is inde-
pendent of external conditions, and if infinite
love embraces all, the least as well as the
greatest, in an equal degree.

This all leads to a considerable increase
in the significance of the individual and his
decisions. At the same time the coherence of
things and the connection of the individual
with it is not surrendered, but rather there
is a general tendency to increase this also.

54 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Christianity does not exhaust the relationship
to the Deity in single points of connection
and isolated achievements, but desires that this
relationship should lead to an entire change of
soul ; and it is for this very reason that the
individual cannot force himself to take the
decisive step, but must await the coming of a
new life from a source of power and grace
which is above him. A kingdom of God
must reveal itself to him, and must even
inspire the desire to enter it. Great world
events must happen in order that a change
may take place at one point, or, as Hegel
expresses it in his own language, "the very
fact that the opposition is implicitly done
away with constitutes the condition, the
presupposition, the possibility of the sub-
ject's ability to do away with it actually."1
Withal, it is an important fact that the
coherent system with which the individual

1 Hegel, Werke, 2e Aufl. xii. 277. Hegel, Lectures on the
Philosophy of Religion, translated by E. B. Spiers and
J. B. Sanderson, iii. 67.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 55

comes into connection does not remain
purely of an invisible kind but strives to
embody itself in a visible form, not only in
its later stages but from the very beginning ;
and that there is an early and persistent
tendency to form a church. This brought in
its train an inevitable dependency not merely
on divine truth but also on human conditions.
The more firmly the visible order was estab-
lished, and the closer it linked the invisible
order to itself, the greater was the loss which
the freedom of the individual was bound to
undergo; every diminution of freedom, how-
ever, endangered the ethical character of
Christianity.

Thus Christianity contained difficult contra-
dictions, just like every other spiritual move-
ment which has had a great part to play on
the stage of humanity. These contradictions
needed imperatively to be reconciled in some
way or other, but the manner of reconciliation
was principally determined by the nature of
the period within which it had to be accom-

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

plished. It was the time at which the
definitive consolidation of Christianity was
established, the last epoch of antiquity, a
period when the will to live was greatly
weakened, when men were becoming uncertain
of themselves, and all the old connections were
broken up. The old epoch was at an end,
and a new one had not yet dawned. Hence
men's first desire was to reach a safe harbour
of refuge : they wished to be thoroughly
assured of deliverance, and to be relieved as
far as possible from all private responsibility.
The wish was all the stronger owing to the
fact that men's minds had been so overawed
by gloomy experiences that the thought of
eternal life became for them, above all else, a
dread of eternal punishment. This drove them
to submit willingly to a superior authority,
and also led to truth being put in as popular
a form as possible. In this difficult situation
Christianity did indeed become a refuge for
mankind ; but it could not become so without
suffering the consequences of this position and

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY

being driven in a very problematical direction.
The religious aspect now pushed the ethical
into the background, and immediately devel-
oped a strong tendency towards the visible
and sensuous. Hence it came about that the
Church as a visible order absorbed Christianity
more and more into itself, that it was thought
to have at its disposal the treasure of divine
grace, and was raised to a position of incon-
testable authority over the individual. At
the same time the idea of organization — and
of an organization which is both stable and
palpable — becomes the centre of spiritual life
and spiritual work. However much com-
plexity and difficulty this tendency has brought
with it, we must not fail to recognize its
grandeur. Nowhere else in the whole course
of history has the attempt been made to bring
the whole of mankind into close connection
with one another on the ground of common
convictions, and thus to bind them together
not by external constraint but by inner com-
munion. Nothing in the human shape is left

THE LIFE OY THE SPIRIT

outside the spiritual order, or excluded from its
influence. But at the same time the spiritual
order is drawn down deep into that which is
human, and thereby strongly influenced ; its
special shape is essentially determined by the
needs of man, or by the stimulus which seems
necessary in order to set him in motion. The
final result is that a unique compromise is
concluded between the spiritual and the merely
human, which leaves to the former its essential
superiority, though in detail the spiritual is
largely overborne by the human. No one
contributed more to establish this compromise
than Augustine, a man who united a fervent
desire for a world-enveloping spiritual life with
the deepest feeling for the needs and weak-
nesses of men.

The idea of organization was first carried
into effect in a complete form in the middle
ages. It determined not only the relationship
of the individual to society, but also the rela-
tions between the different departments of life.
The community in its religious aspect appears

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 59

as the Church, and by it the individual is
provided with a firm support, direction for
conduct, gentler or sterner constraint to definite
tasks. Thus a certain level of life is attained,
a certain amount of spiritual activity is widely
distributed, and to some extent the masses are
brought under discipline. But at the same
time the limits of achievement are unmistak-
able. Such a system of subordination and
solidarity inevitably involves a serious loss of
independence, and if independence is lost the
inward life is bound to suffer injury. We
cannot place the chief end of man in the per-
formance of certain exercises and tasks, in the
fulfilment of his religious, i.e. his ecclesiastical
" duties," without reducing the experiences of
his soul to a position of secondary importance,
and letting outwrard acts repress inward dis-
position. The centre of gravity of life is
removed more and more from the soul of the
individual, and the latter is treated as a mere
appendage of the gigantic ecclesiastical system.
It is a natural development of this position

60 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

that the Church becomes not only the exclusive
custodian of truth, but also the keeper of the
moral conscience of humanity. Her ministers
decide what each man has to hold for truth,
and what is the good he has to strive after.
She believes that she has the powrer of con-
ferring eternal salvation on them, or of con-
demning them to eternal misery. The more
this conviction prevails and becomes a part of
life, though the spontaneity of life in its par-
ticular manifestations is dried up, the more
must the greatness of man consist in willing
submission, and the more must his piety acquire
the character of a blind devotion. But all the
smaller is the place left for independent convic-
tion and disposition, for erect and self-active
personalities. Thus the latest papal Syllabus
actually required men not only to receive the
decisions of the Church obediently, but to hold
these decisions as their own beliefs. If the
independence of the personality is violated in
this way, acts as well as belief will acquire a
predominantly passive character. Hence it is

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY

again consistent with these medieval modes
of thought when the latest Encyclical re-
proaches the Modernists for thinking too
highly of the active virtues. The result is
that the individual is degraded, and obedience
and endurance become the highest virtues
in his life.

The medieval tendency towards organiza-
tion affected also the life of culture, and it
was Scholasticism in particular which gave
philosophical expression to this tendency.
The rigour of the older thought, which in-
volves the exclusive concentration of life on
religion and allows all diversity to be absorbed
in unity, is here moderated. The other de-
partments of life are accorded some rights ;
they are taken up into a general scheme in a
way that resembles the Greek synthesis of
life, especially as carried out by Aristotle.
The artistic and the religious struggle for
unity are to be fused into a comprehensive
totality of life within which their differences
are reconciled. The idea of gradation seems

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to render this possible by handing over the
direction of the whole to religion, but guaran-
teeing a certain independence to the other
departments which fall within the sphere of
the universal reason and the secular life.
This inclusion of all interests certainly sets
men a great and imperative problem, but the
solution here offered is much too external to
be felt as satisfactory beyond the middle
ages. This scheme of subordination leaves
the other departments of life no real inde-
pendence and no spontaneity of creative effort.
But this is not the only unsatisfactory feature,
for it is also found that the spiritual life is
wanting in inner unity, since religion, on the
one hand, with its elevation above the world,
and an essentially earthly culture on the other,
with its joyous reconstitution of the world,
pull in precisely opposite directions, so that
only an extremely external conception of the
problem and extreme superficiality in the
mode of attacking it could bring them into
immediate union.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 63

This attempt to solve the problem of unity
is, as a whole, magnificent and in its way
unique. But the influence which it exercised
on mankind was considerably modified through
Mysticism, and it involves a presupposition
which is open to dispute. It demands men
who are either senile or else spiritually im-
mature : it cannot satisfy men who are grown
up and conscious of their powers. But ever
since the close of the middle ages humanity
has been striving to attain its majority, and
it is just this endeavour which ushers in a new
epoch and gives it a distinctive character. A
growing feeling of power requires a life that
is independent and spontaneous, and it cannot
have it unless individuals are called upon to
exercise their powers in the freest way. This
caused authority to be felt as an oppressive
burden, and the medieval synthesis was proved
to be too narrow for the wealth of life that
was struggling upwards. Hence a breach
with the old order became inevitable, and life
took a course which was directly opposed to

64 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

that which it had previously followed. The
leading tendency had hitherto been from
multiplicity towards unity, from an un-
organized to an organized life, but now the
movement is directed towards multiplicity,
towards the apprehension and elaboration of
all that is specific and individual. Freedom
from every tie, complete emancipation, now
becomes the main aim, and a demand to which
everything must give way. At the beginning
there was no intention of shaking off all the
traditional connections and making the in-
dividual rely entirely on his own powers : the
intention was rather that, at such and such a
particular point, the whole should be more
immediately apprehended, made to live more
intensely, and wrought out into a distinctive
form. But gradually these connections sank
in importance, and the individual freed him-
self more and more from all ties. Hence any
co-ordination of life could only come from the
individual himself, and must never be incon-
sistent with his freedom. The complications

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 65

which arise from this position we shall have
to deal with immediately.

The old philosophy, which was deeply
rooted, and occupied a hallowed place in the
beliefs of mankind, might regard this striving
for freedom as a mere movement of opposi-
tion, as a bold revolt and a piece of defiant
presumption. Such reproaches have not yet
been finally silenced. But that this striving
after freedom was in reality something more,
that it was the result of a spiritual necessity,
is proved by the enormous enrichment and
development of life to which it has given rise,
and the enormous range of actuality which
it has opened up. If the unfolding of the
powers of the individual were nothing more
than a movement of negation and contradic-
tion, this victory of individuality could never
have been the source of the amount of life
and creative effort to which, as a matter of
fact, it has given rise. That the change
extends beyond all merely human ideas into

the fundamental texture of life itself, is proved,

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

among other things, by the transformation of
the inner life as compared with the middle
ages. The middle ages were by no means
wanting in inner life, but it was an inner life
of a rather weak and passive kind ; man felt
himself untrammelled by the world in the
silent ebb and flow of immediate personal
experience. The modern period, on the
contrary, develops an inner life of an active
kind which insists on making its power felt,
subjecting the world and making it conform
to its own demands. Whatever may be the
problems involved, it cannot hide the truth
which this movement brought into pro-
minence, viz., that complete spontaneity is
essential to genuine spiritual life, and that
this spontaneity requires both freedom and
self-activity. But we cannot have these latter
without the recognition of the special character
of each particular part, the recognition of
individuality. Where such movements arise
and make themselves felt, life is bound to be
essentially changed.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 67

In justification of the new movement this
also may be alleged, viz., that the great civilized
nations have imported into it each its own
specific character and have accentuated this
character by its further progress. Nothing
distinguishes one from another more than the
special direction in which they seek and de-
mand deliverance for humanity. In art and
in the general tone of life, the Italians, the
first modern men, occupy the earliest place.
The French continue the same tendency and
carry it further into the ramifications of
existence, and their leading spirits set an
example to the individual of defiant inde-
pendence of the world and also of society.
The English build up political and economic
life from the individual as the starting-point,
and cherish the hope that it will thus be
raised to an infinitely higher level. The
Germans represent the movement towards
freedom in the domain of religion, and they
carry it down into the furthest depths of the
soul. When their classical literature reaches

68 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

its highest point they finally develop the idea
of a world-enveloping Personality, which is
grounded in itself and controlled by its own
laws. This is an idea which must form the
rallying point for every attempt to overcome
the opposition between unity and multiplicity,
between order and freedom.

The new movement shows that it is superior
to all individual caprice, and is spiritually pro-
ductive by its characteristic shaping of all the
departments and relations of life, and the
essential changes which it makes in the re-
presentation of the world and the existence
of man. The older science consisted chiefly
in a general survey of the multiplicity of things,
in which they were regarded as forming parts
of a great structure. Modern science, how-
ever, breaks up the initial impression which we
experience of a totality, and seeks to get down
to the ultimate elements and the smallest
forces, to ascertain their laws, and by their
help to reconstruct the world. This tracing
of particular lines of connection gives us not

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 69

only a clearer insight into reality, but also
an incomparably greater control over things.
Without the analytical methods practised by
modern science, the modern technical applica-
tions of it would never have arisen. But just
as modern science introduces more detail and
exactitude into its representation of reality,
and places the motive power of things in the
elements, so, too, its own position is strikingly
differentiated from that of medieval science.
The Scholastic system, which made metaphysics
supreme over the whole range of reality, is
shattered. The individual sciences take up
their task independently, and furnish us with
characteristic views of the world, while at the
same time they get closer and closer to things
and keep near their real nature. Not only the
individual sciences, however, but also whole
departments of life diverge further and further
from one another, and at the same time
break away from the control of religion and
the Church. Law and Morality, Art and
Science, become independent spheres of life

70 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

which encompass man on all sides with par-
ticular truths and set him particular problems.
This makes life incomparably broader, richer,
and more varied, but is likely at the same
time to expose it to varying and, indeed,
intersecting movements. It takes from life,
without hope of return, its old restful and
self-contained character.

It has been so often depicted before that we
do not feel it incumbent on us to show how
human society takes on an entirely different
form when work falls predominantly on the
shoulders of the individual, how political and
economic life is driven into new channels, and
how the individualizing of existence penetrates
even into social intercourse and everyday
customs. That which now gives charm and
attractiveness to work is, in general, the fact
that its product embodies and illustrates indi-
vidual character, which is only thereby fully
realized.

The position of man within reality is also
affected by the movement of modern life, and

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 71

a fresh foundation must be sought for his
greatness. Aristotle declared that the differ-
ence between man and the animals was that
the latter cannot go beyond individual impres-
sions and individual stimulations, while man,
in virtue of his power of thought, can form
universals and let his action be determined by
them. Later thought differentiates the lower
from the higher stage by the distinction that
the former is bound hand and foot to the
order of nature, while life at the latter stage
rises to independent thought and self-decision.
Reason, which raises us above the purely
natural order, does not take its direction from
any external source, but is able to choose its
own path. Thus freedom becomes the dis-
tinguishing mark of man ; he is " the first
freedman of Creation" (Herder). Of course,
the conception of freedom is by no means
uniform, and often covers both a higher and
a lower kind, e.g. the freedom of Locke is
different from the freedom of Kant. But
everywhere that freedom forms the leading

72 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

conception of value it is taken as proof of a
Reason indwelling in man. Freedom, too,
need not reduce the demands on conduct, but
may increase them if an invisible world is
present in the soul as an awakening and con-
straining force. Thus the Reformation has
greatly increased the task of morality by
laying the chief problem of religion immedi-
ately on the soul of the individual and demand-
ing its transformation. And Kant, by deepen-
ing the idea of duty, has brought the whole of
life under an inner subjection, and has thus
made it not more easy but more difficult.
In connection with men like these, who
approached the subject with all the deep
earnestness of souls anxiously concerned for
the truth of life and spiritual self-preservation,
who dare speak of libertinism ?

This movement as a whole gave to phil-
osophy a new form and new aims, and, as far
as philosophy is in line with the new move-
ment, it exhibits a common character through-
out all the differences between individual

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY

philosophers. Descartes is the first in whose
philosophy this common character is clearly
discerned. A strong craving after truth
makes him feel the existing condition of
knowledge to be absolutely unsatisfactory, and,
in particular, to be involved in unbearable
confusion. The first result is a radical doubt,
but within this doubt there persists unchanged
the endeavour to attain some fixed point, such
as the fulcrum which Archimedes desired.
Such a point is finally found in the thinking
subject, in the conscious ego, and this leads to
a complete change of direction in the work of
philosophy. Hitherto it had proceeded from
the world to man, from the whole to the
element, from the macrocosm to the micro-
cosm : after a truth had been apprehended in
the macrocosm it was applied to the micro-
cosm. But now the microcosm steps into the
first place, the movement advances from man
to the world, which becomes a difficult problem
instead of a ready-made datum. The truth
about the world is ascertained only after it

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

has first been taken to pieces by scientific
analysis and then reconstructed in accordance
with the laws of our thinking. Only that can
be admitted to be true which presents itself to
our thought as clear and distinct. It is owing
to this tendency to start with the subject that
the English thinkers make psychology the
foundation of all knowledge. To follow up
the growth of the individual life, and to ascer-
tain the laws and tendencies which govern it,
becomes the central task of knowledge and
determines all its contents and range. All
the spiritual achievements, all the morality
and law, the religion and art, which form an
integral part of human existence, are to be
developed from the soul of the individual, and
owe to this source their characteristic forms.
What wras formerly looked upon as a cosmic
process, for example, the causal connection
between events, now becomes something ex-
perienced by man, and, indeed, produced by
him, and thus acquires quite a different signi-
ficance. About the same time Leibniz draws

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 75

up a magnificent scheme of the world in which
each individual existence is regarded as a
monad, as a metaphysical point. As such, it
gains an endless life, and develops this life
purely out of its own resources without having
any relations, or being bound up, with anything
external to itself. While the monad thus
assumes the form of a world, reality itself is
transformed into a world of worlds. But at
the same time Leibniz' hearty recognition of
individuality enables him to assign to each of
these sub-worlds a unique significance.

Kant, too, continues this movement of
modern life, and the whole of his philosophy
is pervaded by the attempt to transfer the
centre of gravity from the object to the
subject. The theoretical reason frees man
from the oppression of an alien world, for it
shows that the subject itself constitutes its
own world in accordance with laws that are
indwelling in itself. " The understanding
does not derive its laws from nature, but pre-
scribes them to nature." Hence the theory of

76 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

knowledge takes precedence of metaphysics,
and destroys the latter in the old sense in
which metaphysics believed that it could
apprehend a transcendental existence. The
practical reason frees the acting personality
from all external constraint and leaves it
to impose its laws on itself, but, at the
same time, in the building up of a new
moral order enables it to penetrate to the
ultimate depths of reality. Personality here
becomes the channel through which a higher
world is revealed, and nowhere else is it more
clearly seen that freedom, while it destroys old
ties, introduces new ones in their place, and
claims to be essentially the setting free of a
more real and spontaneous life. Hence the
new philosophy exhibits a large number of
results which often contradict one another if
taken as they stand. But we need only in-
stitute a general comparison with the older
method to become aware that the diversity
rests on a common foundation, and that it is
not a confused divergence, but a struggle to

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 77

carry out a common fundamental tendency.
We thus discern here with absolute clearness
the close connection between the form which
philosophy assumes and the general movement
of human life.

Anyone who is ready to deny that there is
any truth in such a movement as this, with its
thorough-going transformation of reality, must
have a very low opinion of the forces which
have been, and are, at work in the world.
The man who undertook to prove that this
movement was nothing more than a product
of human self-will would find that the logical
development of his principles made it very
difficult for him to escape absolute scepticism.
But to acknowledge some truth in a movement
which forms part of the world's history does
not mean that we regard it as raised above all
dangers and aberrations. In particular, we
may expect that here, as usual, the relation of
man to the spiritual life may give rise to the
most perplexing difficulties. That which, on
the high level of the spiritual life, has an in-

78 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

contestable right, and is capable of producing
the most fruitful results, may be dragged
down by man in his natural state to the level
of his general mental outlook and interests,
and thus be most mischievously distorted.
Such a man may claim for himself, just as
he is, what belongs to him only as a member
of a spiritual order ; he may believe that
he can accomplish from his own resources
what is possible for him only in connection
with a visible or invisible system, and this
is bound to give rise to a great deal of
error and obstruction. For the tragedy
of the human situation is just this, its
greatest danger is the perversion of its
best {corruptio optinii pessima). Hence in
modern life also doubt may finally become
so strong that it reaches right down to the
foundations, and drives life and thought into
new directions.

The modern scheme of life arose in opposition
to the medieval, and is in direct contradiction
to the latter both as regards its estimate of

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 79

man and the general feeling for life which
pervades it. The medieval system, as we saw,
presupposes the spiritual minority of man, the
modern system his majority. In the former
man appears as possessed of no great spiritual
enterprise, and as partaking to a certain extent
in spiritual life only through superior power ;
but the modern system presupposes men of
spiritual power, bent on high aims, for otherwise
individuals could never become pillars of the
spiritual life. But now the question arises,
whether this picture is verified by experience,
whether real life does not lag far behind, and
whether all the complications which we have
just indicated are not thereby reintroduced.
Such complications may be allowed to rest so
long as the old coherent systematizations of
life, the world of religion, or the world of
a universal reason, in the sense of the En-
lightenment, are still vividly present to men,
and point them in a common direction. But
the more these fade into insignificance, and the
more man is thrown upon himself, the greater

80 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

is the danger that spiritual life may dwindle
and finally disappear entirely.

The problem is most easily grasped when
we consider the question as to how any
systematic coherence can be introduced into
life on the new basis. The more we surrender
all control of the manifold by a superior Whole,
the more are we thrown back upon the capacity
of the individual elements to accomplish the
same result by means of free association.
Experience shows that this is not such an easy
matter, that on the one hand we may have
mere colourless co-existence, or on the other
a condition of mutual hostility. And the
surrender of an inner connection may easily
lead to a diminution of spiritual achievement.
This is seen in all the ramifications of the
spiritual life, and first of all in the case of
science itself. We saw how the break-up of
the medieval structure raised the individual
branches of science to a position of independ-
ence, made them specific starting-points for
investigation, and revealed the treasures of

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 81

the universe with incomparably greater fulness
and exactitude. At first a reaction towards
unity persisted as a relic of earlier religious
and philosophical systematizations. After its
disappearance the individual sciences had only
their own necessities to consider, and went
their own ways, which soon diverged. The
next step is a specialization which has eyes for
nothing except what lies in the direction of its
own goal, and which, though it accumulates a
wealth of information, never really succeeds in
penetrating and mastering its material. Or
again, where more general tendencies come
into prominence, they easily succumb to the
influence of special departments of science,
and this brings them into a position of sharp
opposition to one another. Hence the various
branches of science which deal with nature and
spirit develop fundamentally different methods
and standards of value, and, even within any
one of the great departments, the various
movements and tendencies are often widely
divergent. Still more dangerous is the

82 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

cleavage which takes place in life itself, the
attitude of hostility which whole departments
of life assume towards one another. We have
already become so accustomed to look upon
religion and culture as opponents that we
hardly feel any longer how abnormal this
strained relationship is, and how foreign to
other epochs. Further, there exists at the
present day among men of average culture an
opposition between their beliefs about the
world and their beliefs about the moral values
of life, which is often concealed, but in reality
is very sharp. In the world they recognize an
exclusively mechanical causality ; in human
life they defend moral values and the idea of
freedom. The same individuals and parties
who, in their view of the world, greet every
negation with shouts of joy and put as low an
estimate upon man as possible, in the political
and social domain glorify the greatness and
dignity of man, as if this did not depend upon
inner connections and require that reality
should have deeper foundations than those

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 83

offered by the mere co-existences of experience.
Thus we live to-day not only alongside one
another in separate worlds, whose wide diver-
gence is concealed only by language, but one
and the same man lives in different worlds.
In view of such a state of spiritual anarchy,
how could common ideals arise and by their
superior power win the minds of men ?

The problems which arise from the relation-
ship between the individual and society are no
less difficult. When the modern movement
towards freedom laid the burden of life mainly
on the shoulders of individuals, it presupposed
that they were thoroughly efficient and willing
to do their best. It also relied upon the free
association of individuals, and the mutual
contact and intermingling between different
circles in the life of society, to produce a
sufficient degree of solidarity among humanity.
Much has certainly been attained which earlier
epochs did not possess, but the modern libera-
tion of energies has given rise to strong opposi-
tions and passions, and has conferred enormous

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

power on the party system. It has often
tended to promote the unbridled letting loose
of frenzied selfishness, and has placed at the
service of the latter all the means which a
highly developed civilization has at its disposal.

But this leads us to the decisive point as to
how the individual presents himself to us on
the new basis when we consider him in his
own private nature. Tn the higher strata of
modern culture, wherever conceptions such as
personality and individuality have been fully
recognized, it has only been by those who have
held fast to and reinforced invisible connections,
and have resolutely maintained the reality of
an inner world. For we are only justified in
setting a high value upon personality if we
believe that it reveals to us a new kind of
process — in fact, a new world. The develop-

/ment of individuality can only be made the
chief object of human endeavour if existence

\ as human beings means that men have great
tasks to carry out, and contradictions to over-
come, as the condition of realizing the highest

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 85

capacities of their own nature. Life only-
acquired greatness and spiritual independence
because man had to seek to enter into relations
with the whole universe, to come to terms
with it, and to maintain his own position in
face of it. The main body of mankind has
become less and less conscious of these inner
connections, and, at the same time, man has
become a mere item in a world which comes
before him as something given and incapable
of development from the spiritual point of
view, and which surrounds and hems him in
on all sides. Hardly any room is left for the
conception of personality, and we do not see
how individuality can maintain its value if it
is nothing more than a particular fragment of
nature. But if the conceptions maintain
themselves, claim to be valued as highly as
before, and make good their claim, it is impos-
sible to guard against a luxurious upgrowth of
hollow talk and a deep-reaching insincerity in
life. In the absence of any counteracting in-
fluence, there is an increasing danger that our

86 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

life may lose its sure foundation and finally
find itself adrift in the void, leaving us to
affirm conclusions while denying their premises.
In fact, when this tendency prevails, the
human soul can no longer remain a unity in
itself, but is bound to be transformed into a
medley of co-existing and interpenetrating
psychical processes. If these are not worked
over and transformed by a superior unity, they
will come to have a merely sensational connec-
tion with one another, and man will finally
become a mere bundle of sensations, feelings,
and impulses. But, all the same, the superior
rights of personality and the dignity and great-
ness of humanity are proclaimed and trumpeted
forth.

Thus experience shows that the mere
striving after freedom cannot ensure that life
shall retain a spiritual character. The break-
up of all inner connections has led to super-
ficiality and the dissipation of energy. In
addition, the course of the movement in
modern life has revealed that the complications

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 87

are much greater, and the resistance much
more strenuous than was anticipated at the
beginning, when men were filled with joyful
confidence. And a further fact has become
evident, viz., that it is not only at particular
points that civilization does not correspond to
the demands of the spiritual life, but that
civilization as a whole is in many ways in
conflict with these demands. We feel with
increasing distress the wide interval between
the varied and important work to be done at
the circumference of life and the complete
emptiness at the centre. When we take an
inside view of life, we find that a life of mere
bustling routine preponderates, that men
struggle and boast and strive to outdo one
another, that unlimited ambition and vanity
are characteristic of individuals, that they are
always running to and fro and pressing forward,
or feverishly exerting all their powers. But
throughout it all we come upon nothing
that gives any real value to life, and nothing
spiritually elevating. Hence we do not find

88 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

any meaning or value in life, but in the end a
single huge show in which culture is reduced
to a burlesque. Anyone who thinks it all over
and reflects upon the difference between the
enormous labour that has been expended and
the accompanying gain to the essentials of life,
must either be driven to complete negation
and despair, or must seek new ways of
guaranteeing a value to life and liberating
man from the sway of the pettily human.
But this will force men to resume the quest
for inner connections.

But the objection will be raised that the
endeavour to attain to such connections is
no novelty, for the whole of the nineteenth
century was taken up with it. This is certainly
the case ; but should we find ourselves at the
present day in such a state of unrest and in-
security, as actually exists, if the co-ordina-
tions which have been attempted had been
satisfactory ? In German speculation philo-
sophy itself, with buoyant courage, undertook
to understand the whole of reality as the

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 89

unfolding of a single all-embracing spiritual
process. Hegel, in particular, makes all
philosophy to be the search for unity, and
at the same time gives a symmetrical form
to the whole of existence. But however
powerful have been the influences which this
attempt has exercised, and still exercises, it
has not met with universal recognition, not
only because in the meantime there took place
the well-known movement of life towards the
visible world, but also because man was
treated in the Hegelian system too much as a
purely intellectual being, and the spiritual life
was not given any sufficient content. On a
broader basis a counteracting influence to pre-
vent the threatened dissipation of the energies
of life was exercised by the thought of social
evolution, the carrying out of which was
especially distinctive of the nineteenth century.
It makes full use of the connection of the
individual with the sequence and co-existence
of things, and shows what is the value of this
connection, how the work of men through

90 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

long generations still continues to influence
present conditions, and, further, how the
existence of men in society produces a
spiritual atmosphere, a milieu , which leaves
every individual enveloped and moulded by
superior power. But if, from this point of
view, he appears as a mere member of an
extensive system, the question arises as to
whether he can come into intimate relation-
ship with this system, and take it up as a
whole into his character and disposition, or
whether he feels himself at the mercy of mere
blind fact. In the first case, the problem
arises how history and society are to attain
to an inner connection which can win the
allegiance of the soul of the individual, if no
sort of inner world is presupposed. In the
second case, where the mere fact of depend-
ence is the final conclusion that is reached,
we cannot see why man should welcome as a
good this dependence, which is often very
burdensome and oppressive ; why he should
make it part of his character, and sacrifice his

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 91

own well-being to that of a world which con-
sists of merely co-existing parts. Hence the
matter remains in some obscurity, and only
the constant interpenetration of the two con-
ceptions, as, for example, in the case of Comte,
the founder of Positivism, can in any degree
conceal the fact that, by this path, the goal
is unattainable. In reality, what has kept
modern men together to the greatest extent
is work, work in the modern sense. This
has as its characteristic feature, in comparison
with earlier periods, a greater detachment from
the subjective basis and a greater independence
of the individual, the formation of great com-
plexes which develop their own laws and
motive forces, and which combine and unite
with one another the achievements of indi-
viduals. The efforts of the individual can
only succeed on condition that he gains an
entrance into these systems, and does his work
in the particular position which is assigned to
him. This exercises an extraordinary power
in overcoming the self-will of individuals and

92 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

directing their actions towards a common
end. But, whatever has been accomplished
in this respect by such a co-ordination, it
unites men only with regard to their outward
actions, and does not produce a spiritual unity.
Wherever it is a question of character and
convictions, all combination and co-operation
in work cannot prevent a wide divergence, a
rampant selfishness, an inward isolation of the
individual. In fact, if work is raised to a
position of exclusive control, it finally brings
with it the danger that life may become
merely mechanical. The craving after more
soul and more love in human existence has
to remain unsatisfied. Hence, as a general
rule, the modern movement after some sort
of connection is too external, and does not
go back to the spiritual foundations ; we are
conscious of a great gap with nothing to
fill it.

Such a situation naturally enables us to
understand how the older method, and, in
particular, the medieval ecclesiastical system,

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 93

can again make itself more powerfully felt,
how it can make use of the perplexities of
modern life to recommend its own system of
truth, and how it can win the allegiance of
many vacillating souls. As a matter of fact,
it acquires a certain power because, in the
midst of a progressive disintegration, it pre-
sents a stable and coherent system, and offers
a support to which one can cling. If that dis-
integration is not in the end checked from
within, then a serious danger of a relapse
might arise ; the imperative need of some
support or other might for a time thrust out
of sight all other considerations. But what
men are able to win temporarily does not
necessarily become a power that is spiritually
productive ; and even if the old system is
taken up again, it could never regain its old
power of conviction. For this rested for the
most part on the fact that the spiritual life
which was offered by this system was on a
level with the general world-movement. But,
meanwhile, changes of the most far-reaching

94 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

character have taken place. Of course, men
may make artificial attempts to reverse the
coarse of progress, or to explain it away, but
these attempts can never have the immediacy
and inner necessity which were characteristic
of the medieval systematization in its own age,
and which belong to a great achievement in
the history of the world. Hence no help can
be expected from this quarter.

If men were mere products of history, as
this view makes them, if, as such, they were
bound to the pre-existing situation, and both
their life and their work were essentially con-
trolled by what has previously been accom-
plished, it is impossible to see how to avoid
the perplexities which we have set forth, or
how we should overcome the opposition
between a unity which crushes out all freedom
and a multiplicity which breaks up all co-
herence. But we are not mere products of
history ; in virtue of our spiritual nature we
are able to transcend our past, and this power
we are able to make use of and cultivate.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 95

Fortified by this, we are not left defenceless,
and need not accept whatever history offers us
as an undifferentiated whole ; we possess a
spontaneity which we can oppose to every-
thing that is merely given ; we can separate
in what is offered to us that which is spiritually
necessary from that which has been shaped by
human agency ; we can emphasize the require-
ments for the maintenance of spiritual life
which have been revealed by the experience of
history, and we can inquire what direction is
pointed out for our own work by these
requirements.

In our brief survey of history it was clearly
seen that, in the case of the problem of unity
and multiplicity, the movement of life has not
followed a single line, but that the tendency
towards multiplicity, which is characteristic of
modern times, is in opposition to the tendency
towards unity, which was predominant in
antiquity. A critical estimate of the whole
shows us that it is not a question of a mere
sequence of tendencies, but that two poles are

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

indicated, between which the spiritual life is
necessarily compelled to move. If spiritual
life is to be possible, we must have on the one
hand an inner connection, a creative activity
proceeding from the whole : such life can
never be produced by a mere juxtaposition ;
it must be acquired and maintained by some
power above the separate elements. On the
other hand, as we saw, the spiritual life must
have spontaneity, independence, and pure
inwardness, if it is to exist at all ; it must be
lived for its own sake and cannot be imparted
or transferred from without. It does not
persist in the condition which it has once
reached, but begins to ebb if it is not con-
tinually renewed. If, then, it is incontestable
that such immediacy and spontaneity can
arise only in the soul of the individual, and
from this source must animate all the con-
nections which are subsequently formed, then
a contradiction arises which at first sight is
insoluble. Life arises for us only at an in-
dividual point, and yet, as spiritual life, it

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 97

must at the same time be a creative activity
proceeding from the whole. If this contra-
diction is to be resolved, we must make an
essential change in the view which we took
at first sight, and deepen our conception of
reality so as to see at the individual point
more than an isolated event. We must
recognize the presence there of a universal
process, and a totality of spiritual life must be
the basis of our own existence. To be sure,
this world-process is not immediately our own
possession : we have first to grasp it and work
it out ; but it never could have come into our
field of vision at all and become an object of
our efforts if our nature did not originally
participate in it. If our inner existence is not
somehow grounded in the infinity of the
whole, all co-ordination of life must be im-
pressed upon us from without, and this will
inevitably crush all independence. But this
again will necessarily cause, sooner or later,
a reaction in favour of setting free the indi-
vidual elements, and will engender a desire

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to break up the connection. On this view,
mankind would be driven to and fro, without
hope of rescue, between blind subjection to
authority and a spiritual anarchy of individual
elements, and would be worn out by the
contest, were it not that there is a point of
vantage from which it is possible to make
some headway against the antithesis in ques-
tion, though it does not here simply disappear,
and at which we are able to protect ourselves
from the unhappy condition just described.

The average man, whose spirituality is
sluggish, will always have great difficulty in
getting beyond the stage of wavering between
these two opposite positions. According as
the feeling of weakness and isolation, or the
feeling of power and independence, gains the
upper hand, he will incline first in the one
direction and then in the other. But this
makes it all the more an indispensable task
for the work of the spirit to develop a life
which rises above that opposition and all
the spiritual poverty of the average man, and

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 99

thereby to bring into as sharp relief as possible
a genuine spiritual culture as compared with
the superficiality and pretence of a culture
which is merely human. This cannot well
take place unless we seek also to establish a
particular organization, a co-ordination of
mankind with this object in view. The
medieval Church became too narrow for this
purpose, not only because it bound up the
spiritual world much too firmly with a visible
order, but also because it made religion the
sole representative of that independent spiritual
life. It thus gave life a character that was
too one-sidedly religious, and transformed to
too great an extent the spiritual into the
ecclesiastical. But when once the funda-
mental thought of a combination of forces,
under the idea of a spiritual life superior to
the average, has won a footing in history, it
cannot again disappear ; it will stir up and
move humanity until it is revived in some
form or other. Only then can we attack the
problem of bringing into relief from the dull

100 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

average of attainment a heart and core of
genuine spirituality throughout the whole
range of existence, and of working from this
starting-point to strengthen and elevate life.
The constant presupposition is, that a spiritual
life which is a unified whole is at work in the
depths of our soul ; it is only when it does
this that main lines of effort can be developed
out of it, that truths of the soul can be ela-
borated, and that the way can be prepared tor
an inner solidarity of the soul.

If this is impossible without the constant
co-operation of philosophy, then philosophy
itself must receive a new form from the new
connections, and must develop new methods.
Its first task is to provide a new starting-point
for its own work. It can no longer take its
stand on the external world, as the ancients
did, since the general movement of life and
thought has tended more and more to make
that world itself a problem, and to refer men
back to life as the only thing which is immedi-
ately present to them. But if this life is

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 101

understood as the mere activity of a unit
which is cut off from the world, it can never
get beyond its limited and separated sphere,
and never attain to a truth that is universally
valid. It will thus inevitably lapse into a state
of complete isolation. Hence it is important
to show that there is a world which lies within
life itself, and to advance from the psychologi-
cal treatment of it to the noological. The latter
does not deal with the states and experiences
of the individual unit, but with the upgrowth of
the spiritual life, and looks at it in a way that
rises above the separation of individual and
society, but at the same time affords us a
characteristic view of the whole of reality.

If we thus start from the spiritual life as
a unified whole, and strive to reach some
systematization of life in work, we need not
be afraid that humanity will sink to a condition
of rigid uniformity : ample provision has here
been made for movement and variety. For,
in the first place, spiritual life as a whole will
always need to be recognized and appropriated

102 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

by men, and in doing so different minds will
inevitably take different paths. It will only
be with great difficulty that this divergence
will ever cease in the course of history, or even
diminish. But we have to struggle incessantly,
not only to realize the spiritual life as a whole,
but also to give form to its details. For, as
we shall have to show later with more detail,
the spiritual life does not reveal its depths to
man all at once, but he can only advance
gradually into it by coming to terms with the
existing condition of the world and his own
soul. Various stages may have to be tra-
versed and important decisions will have to
be taken. In this matter one and the same
answer cannot be expected from all. For the
individual may take up his position here or
there according to his nature and experience ;
in fact whole periods may adopt different
positions according to the impressions they
have received and the tasks they have to
perform. In particular, one epoch may be
filled with the consciousness of the inner

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY 108

greatness of the spiritual life, another may feel
deeply how human existence fails to reach
this height of attainment ; the one may there-
fore be a period of affirmation, the other a
period of negation. Great tension may be the
consequence, and much strife among men, but
if we once make sure only of the idea of an
independent spiritual life, we shall have made
it possible to bring counteracting influences to
bear against the disintegration, and in fact to
understand the different movements as all
co-operating in a common work. The only
essential is that the matter should never be
regarded as settled and done with. Let it
never be forgotten that to us men there is not
offered any ready-made relationship between
unity and multiplicity, but that we have to
co-operate with the forces at work in the
world, and laboriously strive to reach some
sort of reconciliation of the antithesis,

CHAPTER II

Change and Persistence

Time and Eternity

The relation between change and persistence,
between time and eternity, is exceedingly
complicated and confused in human life. No
phase of this relationship is satisfying ; we are
driven from one to another ; a reconciliation
seems to be indispensable, but we do not see
how to attain it.

In the first place, man stands completely
immersed in the stream of time ; his whole
existence is in a state of constant change,
and in the external world he finds everywhere
the more change the more closely he scrutinizes
things. Meanwhile, the current of his own life
flows on without resting ; in comparison with

104

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 105

the endlessness of time, the existence of the
individual appears as a fleeting moment. But
this transience and insignificance of his life
is felt by man both as a grief and a grievance,
and hence it comes to be one of the leading
motives of his work to escape somehow from
the destroying power of time. He experiences
that longing for eternity which Plato depicted
in glowing colours. The individual feels that
he must soon retire from the scene, and hence
he seeks to leave behind him some signs that
he has lived. Great kings set up memorials
of their deeds and inscribe their names on
walls of rock. But if we go beyond the
individual, we find that the building up of a
civilization requires, as it were, the accumula-
tion and storing up of achievements. The
present must maintain its hold on the past
in order to be able to continue the building-up
process ; our task is to establish a foundation
for life in face of all change of circumstances
and all caprice of individuals. Institutions
and customs, which are declared to be un-

106 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

changeable and which are revered as inviolable,
are particularly dominant at the beginnings of
civilization. Religion especially, by connecting
life with a sacred order, exercises an influence
in favour of persistence and keeps change at
arm's length as an outrage against God.

But if we take our stand within time we
cannot well overcome the power of time.
The stream of time undermines and destroys
the mightiest and most skilfully constructed
works ; from the largest whole to the smallest
parts it brings everything into flux. Not only
individuals, but whole nations and civilizations
decay ; the various religions themselves, the
guardians of eternal truth, succumb to time
and survive only as memories. The craving
for eternity would have to be torn from our
soul if our life belonged entirely to the
immediate present, if it could not transcend
it and press forward to a new reality, which
stands in a different relation to the question
of time and eternity. But such a reality can
reveal itself, if at all, only as the result of

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 107

spiritual work, and this work necessarily in-
volves both thought and philosophy. Now
it would appear that nothing is more char-
acteristic of thought than the power to look
at things out of relation to time under the
form of eternity.

Greek philosophy devoted special attention
to this problem. It waged vigorous war
against the flux of phenomena, and hence
produced a characteristic type of life. Change
in things is recognized throughout a wide
range, but is degraded by the main tendency
of thought to a lower level, and kept at a
distance from the heart and core of spiritual
work. This was not done purely in the
interests of philosophical knowledge, which
bade men seek beneath all change a persistent
fundamental substance or unchangeable ele-
ments. Life, too, demanded some sure and
certain support, which should be a spiritual
rallying-point from which it could go forth
to enrich itself. It was thought that life
could not gain this support except by turning

108 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

from the restless activity of man to the
universe, which, in its ultimate nature, was
considered to be unchangeable. In grasping
and contemplating the order of the universe
and its eternal grace, man seemed to find
something worth living for and to be raised
above the cares and troubles of everyday life.
On this view, knowledge seems to be the only
path by which man's life can be raised to the
level of that which is eternal ; the superiority
of knowledge over action was thus fully
guaranteed. But the next thing was to
ascertain more accurately what it was in the
universe which could be reckoned as persistent.
The answer given by Plato gained the widest
acceptance and has exercised the deepest
influence on mankind. Plato sees in the
conceptions which thought uses a certain
amount of fixity in contrast with an opinion
which continually varies. On a closer view,
this fixed element is determined as the form
or shape. The co-ordination of these forms
into a great synthetic structure gives rise to

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 109

a realm of unchangeable truth and reality.
This realm must be raised above the world
which envelops us, in order to preserve its
independence and purity, but it exercises a
formative influence over the world and gives
its efforts a fixed goal and an impulse towards
higher things. Knowledge is here raised to
a position of control over the whole of life,
for it is knowledge alone which is able to
reveal to us this transcendental world and
keep it abidingly present.

Aristotle brings form back into the world
of experience, but leaves it its immutability,
and by his vigorous development of the anti-
thesis of matter the total picture of the world
and life is rounded off with still greater com-
pleteness. This reconciliation between change
and persistence, between time and eternity,
which was reached when Greek thought was
at its highest level, has moulded the whole of
life in a specific way, and still retains the
influence which it has exercised for thousands
of years. Form has received the fullest recog-

110 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

nition as a phenomenon which pervades the
whole world, and it becomes the central point
of spiritual work. The world appears on this
view as dominated by the opposition of matter
and form. The latter is the absolutely un-
changeable element, so that to seek something
which is persistent simply means to throw the
forms into clear relief. Matter, on the other
hand, exists in a state of flux, not subject to
rule. In the process of life form takes hold
of matter and shapes it to its own ends, but
matter always tends to escape from these ties
and always has to be conquered anew. Hence
the world is in a state of constant movement,
but in its ultimate nature it remains unaltered :
rest retains an unassailable superiority over
change. And even where change extends
beyond the individual, as with the fates of
nations or the motions of the heavenly bodies,
Aristotle does not by any means believe that
there is no persistence. The conception of fixed
rhythms in movement is developed, perhaps,
in connection with the Babylonian astronomy.

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 111

Just as day and night, summer and winter,
follow one another in eternal recurrence, so
also there are rhythmical periods in the world
as a whole and in the fates of men. Move-
ment does not go on endlessly, but only up
to a certain point, whose position is fixed, then
it turns back to the beginning and starts a
new series. Hence everything is both old
and new at the same time ; in the incessant
ebb and flow of phenomena, in the endless
succession of periods, the world as a whole
remains the same. The work of knowledge
corresponds to this conception of reality. Its
task is not so much to follow the changes in
the coherent systems which have been formed
within life as to construct a general picture
out of the confused mass of first impressions,
to bring the flux of things to a stand. Its
procedure is not genetic, but descriptive and
classificatory. The strong point of this philo-
sophy lies in discovering fixed types or forming
them, to a certain extent after the manner of
plastic art. It is certainly in connection with

112 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

this that we are especially indebted to the
work of the Greeks for the fixation of sharply
outlined types of thought and life, which seem
likely to remain a permanent heritage of
humanity.

The search for something which is persistent
is not confined to the universe generally, but
extends to the details of human existence.
The kind of political life which prevails seems
to be determined above all by the nature of
the political constitution. The form of the
state seems to be that which preserves the
systematic coherence of the whole in opposition
to the constantly changing series of individuals,
and it is this in particular which has led to the
high estimation, and frequent over-estimation,
in which constitutional forms are held. Thus
a tendency arises to construct an ideal and to
hold this up as the permanent standard by
which any change in political relations is to
be judged.

But the impulse to find something that is
persistent is seen with particular clearness in

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 113

the way in which the life of the soul is shaped.
The ultimate basis of life is here always taken
for granted ; in the full development of this
human activity has an important task assigned
it, but at the same time an impassable goal.
When this goal is reached, activity ceases to
be a mere striving, and is transformed into a
state of rest in itself, into an activity fully
satisfied by its own exertion and self-expression.
The best example of this is artistic contempla-
tion, which is full of exalted pleasure without
striving to attain to anything beyond itself.
It seems that here the opposition is entirely
overcome, since the activity itself acquires a
sort of persistence. If, in accordance with
this, happiness is sought not in effort but in
possession, this possession is no state of
slothful rest, but an incessant activity. Hence
the chief problem of life is life itself, as the
complete unfolding and effective co-ordination
of its own nature : as the poet says, the
important thing is to become what one is.

The conception of form has a far-reaching

114 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

power in this connection also, for everywhere
that there is any diversity manifest in the
domain of life, it is to be brought into a fixed
relation either of gradation or of equilibrium.
The general result is a life which is self-
existent and established on its own founda-
tions, and which is exempt from restlessness
and haste only because it is incessantly active.

No one would wish to maintain at the
present day that this scheme, which was
drawn up by the philosophers, really controlled
the life of the average Greek. Very possibly
it was by way of contrast to this average that
its features were outlined with so much
sharpness. But in the spiritual life and in
the work of that unique nation philosophy
does not occupy a position of isolation. And
the creative activity which found expression
in art shows more persistence than in modern
times ; certain types endure for centuries
without crushing the individuality of their
creators. The technical work of the Greeks,
too, has more stability ; there is less alteration

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 115

in its methods and instruments than has
become the rule in the latest period. Hence
their life has throughout a more restful
character than modern life ; it is laden with
fewer unsolved problems and sharp contra-
dictions. It is not so much a restless striving
after an ever-receding goal, a hoping and
waiting for a better future, as a co-ordination
and strengthening of its own powers ; it
draws its satisfaction from the complete
mastery of its own existence in the present.

This ideal of life, with its reconciliation of
rest and activity, has always possessed an
attraction for later periods, but all its nobility
and greatness cannot conceal the presupposi-
tions on which it rests, and which became
untenable in the following ages. It demands
a vigorous nature ; it demands a considerable
activity which takes pleasure in its own
exercise ; it demands, in fact, faith in the
rationality of the human soul and the whole
of reality in their fundamental nature. Form,
too, can only maintain its position of leader-

116 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ship where it possesses an inner life — we might
say, a soul. And the whole scheme under-
went considerable modifications towards the
close of antiquity. After the loss of political
freedom and the cessation of spiritual creation,
activity loses its old value, and what is offered
in its stead cannot fully make up for the loss.
Difficult problems and contradictions arise
within human existence and in the condition
of the world ; in particular, the old harmony
between the spiritual and the sensible threatens
to turn into a sharp opposition. Among men
the pettiness and meaninglessness of everyday
routine is ever more keenly felt. The thought
that a similar round of tasks may go on for
ever, may easily make it appear that all our
trouble and work is fruitless, and may become
terribly oppressive. Finally, when creative
power is at a lowr ebb, form no longer preserves
the soul and the content which are necessary
to the furtherance of life.

Hence old ideals decayed, and yet no new
ones arose out of the chaos of the times. Was

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 117

it to be wondered at that, in such a situation,
wherever all faith in life had not disappeared,
there arose a strong desire for some truth or
other which should be untouched by the
changes of time, and for complete peace in the
possession of such a truth? The important
point is to find something eternal, which leaves
behind it the whole domain of becoming, and
reveals to men a new life. Such an eternal
element, however, is not to be found in the
world, but only above it, and hence the
endeavour to attain to it acquires a religious
character. The endeavour to reach persistence,
as we saw it in art, in which the fixed element
is sought within the activity, gives way to a
religious endeavour which is inclined to bring
the two into opposition. Rest in the eternal,
free from all the haste and toil of life, now
becomes the supreme goal. When spiritual
life is at its highest level, as in the case of
Plotinus, this rest is certainly not represented
as a cessation of all action, but action here lies
entirely within the soul ; it comes to be a

118 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

constant and persistent contemplation of the
one eternal existence. On this view there is
no room for any change or any diversity.
Finally there remains as the ultimate fact of
life, only a single and fundamental emotional
tone, a quiet resting and free moving in eternal
existence. But this leads to the threshold of a
new epoch.

Christianity could not summon mankind to
a complete change of heart, and could not
preach the necessity of a new condition of
things, without making a breach with the
finality of the old Greek view. It was just
the rise of Christianity which made clear the
fundamental presupposition on which the old
system rested, and which was now seen to be
untenable. The Greek solution of the problem
stands and falls with the conviction that this
world of ours is everything which it can
possibly be, that it is in a normal condition
which does not need any alteration and does
not demand our interference. Only on such
a view could the contemplation of the universe

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 119

furnish the chief content of life, and a content
which is not only completely satisfactory but
also productive of happiness. Christianity, on
the contrary, holds the opposite belief, that
the world is full of grave disorders, that it has
fallen away from a standard which it ought to
maintain, and which it really did maintain at
the beginning, and that it is important to
regain the lost height of attainment by an
entirely new departure, for which a fresh
bestowal of divine love and power on humanity
is necessary. At the same time, the world as
a whole acquires an essentially new aspect :
great deeds now become the essence of all that
happens, they make an ethical drama out of
the whole. In this the salvation of mankind
and, indeed, of the whole universe, is the
question at issue and is the subject of the
greatest vicissitudes. The seriousness of this
drama forbids all repetition : the thought of a
rhythm of events, and of an ebb and flow in the
history of the world, can in such a connection
be regarded only as a frivolity. At the same

120 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

time the most significant modification occurs
in the relation between time and eternity.
Greek speculation at its highest level admitted,
of course, that all that happens in time rests on
an eternal order, but the temporal and the
eternal remain clearly separated from one
another ; eternity does not intervene in the
changes of time. But this is just what
happens according to the beliefs of Christi-
anity ; it is this conviction more than any-
thing else that gives this religion its distinctive
character. But the entry of the eternal into
time must very considerably increase the
importance of all that happens in time ;
temporal happenings thus gain a value for the
deepest ground and the ultimate fate of reality.
The building-up of a kingdom of God within
human life is closely connected with this fact.
When the old and the new worlds come into
collision, nothing produces a wider separation
between the leading thinkers on both sides,
such as Plotinus and Augustine, than the fact
that the former reduces time to a mere simili-

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 121

tude of eternity and does not call for any sort
of historical progress in human life, while with
Augustine the building-up of a religious com-
munity, an ecclesiastical order, is the central
point which controls all his thought. It is
when the formation and development of this
religious order lays a great task upon men and
calls for decision on their part that they first
acquire a history in any true sense of the
word. But the task which is laid upon them
is a permanent one. For although, after the
victory of Christianity, the movement pro-
ceeds on more peaceful lines, there is always
the demand for the further expansion and
development of the Christian life. In this
connection Christianity has from the beginning
set up a high goal in its representation of the
kingdom of God, when men shall be perfect in
love and purity. This goal is far in advance
of anything which experience shows to have
ever been attained, and it has consequently
implanted a deep longing in the human soul,
and has continually lifted the thoughts of men

122 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

beyond the present and the present order to a
future anticipated in faith and hope.

But the soul of the individual takes its full
share in the inner movement of life and in the
shaping which it receives in the course of
history ; in fact, it is in the individual soul that
the most immediate and deepest changes take
place. For, henceforth, the main task of life
can no longer be to make completely intelli-
gible and hold fast a nature which after all is
already present to us. For the intensifying
of the ethical demand, which insists that men
must be renewed and purified, makes every-
thing which is achieved by merely natural
powers seem inadequate, and requires a radical
renewal. It is thus that a history of the soul
first arises and becomes the heart and core of
all life. The great oppositions of existence
here come into immediate collision, and keep
the life of man, which oscillates from one to
the other, in a state of constant tension.

Hence there is much more movement and
change in Christianity than in the world of

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 123

ancient thought. But, on the other hand,
there are many influences which co-operate to
preserve and strengthen the effort after per-
sistence. When God is conceived of as
entirely above the world and as a personal
Being, and especially after victory has been
won in the outer world, the rest in God which
is longed for when life is at its highest level
has a more fervent and intimate character,
and the desire to be completely free from the
restless and ignoble routine of the world be-
comes still more pressing. The appearance of
the eternal in time could then be easily under-
stood as allowing men, even in this life, to give
an eternal setting to their thoughts and feel-
ings, and to free them from every element of
time. This line of thought has established
itself and maintains a permanent position in
particular in the Greek Church, and, more than
anywhere else, in Greek monasticism.

But, as a general rule, what contributed
most to the attainment of persistence was the
conviction that the truth which decides the

124 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

salvation of the soul was not obtained by merely
human power, and could not be so obtained
in the future, but that it came to us as a com-
munication from God, as a supernatural revela-
tion, and, as such, tolerates no change. The
course of history makes the Church the guar-
dian of this unchangeable truth. The more the
Church detaches itself from its secular environ-
ment, and the greater the separation between
divine and human, supernatural and natural,
the higher is the inviolable divine truth raised
above the changes of human life and above the
whole sphere of human work.

A further support was given to the tendency
towards persistence by the conditions of the
closing period of antiquity, with its disinclina-
tion for any independent action and any private
responsibility, along with the dangers attaching
to both. When it made any effort, it experi-
enced not so much a pleasurable exercise of
power as a paralysing uncertainty as to the
success of its endeavours. Hence it was bound
to seek for happiness not so much in endeavour

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 125

as in possession, and it wanted its possession
to be absolutely certain and unassailable. A
possession of this kind, however, seemed to
be nowhere offered except by religion in its
ecclesiastical form.

Just as this tendency towards persistence
made itself more widely felt in the middle
ages in the sphere of religion, so now it
conquered all the ramifications of life. In
spite of their increasing power, the new
nations were not yet in a position to pro-
duce a culture of their own, and were
compelled to depend on that which was
handed down to them. It was not to be
wondered at that this culture was thought
to be final perfection and met with uncon-
ditional veneration. Hence Aristotle came
to be regarded as the supreme example
of human knowledge, with whom men
would not dare to break, and the attain-
able was everywhere supposed to have been
already attained in the past. There was
only one task left for men to carry out,

126 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to guard faithfully that which had been won,
> and to transmit it conscientiously to later
generations.

This mode of thought usually looked at the
life of its own age and the state of its environ-
ment in the light of the past, and this past
might be either classical antiquity or the
beginnings of Christianity. The past, with its
culminations of attainment, was that which
lay next to man's soul, and it hung like a veil
* between the man and his own period. There
was something fresh to do only in so far as the
various authorities on which men relied had to
be reconciled with one another. This was the
problem which Scholasticism took up and
solved in a very capable manner within the
limits of possibility. Thus life here, with all
its externally directed industry — and this is by
no means lacking — yet possesses in its inmost
heart a deep tranquillity and security. It is
usually exempt from agitating soul-conflicts
and corroding doubts. In the exceptions
where these do occur they are usually thought

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 127

of as something monstrous and are condemned
with the utmost severity.

This restful tone attains its maximum in
mysticism. The latter develops a wonderful
tenderness and intimacy, in direct contrast
with the hardness and roughness of its environ-
ment. It strives to free human life more and
more from every element of time, to make
man younger every day, and to transport him
entirely into a "permanent present." The
man for whom time becomes as eternity and
eternity as time, seems to escape all pain and
to be brought into a state of pure bliss. In
order to prepare a secure lodging for such
peace within the soul, the inner consciousness
is here first separated from all external activity,
as a pure internality of the soul, and while
this immersion of life in itself does not prevent
a joyous activity toward the world, this latter
has no value except as an expression of char-
acter. The close connection between God
and the world which mysticism stands for,
may reduce both the visible world and time to

]«8 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

an illusion and a dream, a morning-glow which
disappears at the rising of the sun. But this
may easily lead to the thought that the world
and time, as expressions of eternal being, gain

, a closer connection and a greater significance.
These are valuable seed-thoughts which may
lead to a more inward comprehension of the
world and also to a doctrine of development.
We cannot fail to recognize that this is a
doctrine which has arisen from religious
speculation.

This predominance of the idea of persistence
sets definite limits to the action as well as the
thought of the middle ages. Where the con-
dition of things, with all its incompleteness
and all its misery, was thought to be the dis-
pensation of a higher will, it could not be the
task of man to strive to make essential altera-
tions in it, or to transform reality as far as

4 possible into a kingdom of reason. And the
misery was the more easily endured because
all earthly life was thought to be only a tran-
sitory passage to a better state of existence,

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 129

to man's true "home." Hence any effort to
improve things was limited to mitigating to
the best of men's ability the need which
existed in individual cases : no attempt was
made to trace back the misery to its source
and to abolish it totally by a general trans-
formation of existing circumstances. We find
no effort and no movement from whole to
whole. But just as the condition of mankind
was accepted as essentially unchangeable, so
the great external world was thought of as
being once for all established and fixed by
superior creative power. In particular, we
never meet with the thought that organic
forms may be subject to change ; nature is
conceived of as the faithful tenant of the form
which the Creator has stamped upon things.

Hence the thought of persistence had a
secure predominance and determined the kind
of life that was lived. To emphasize the per-
sistent element in things, and to connect
human action with it, seemed to be in the

main the chief aim of spiritual work. The

130 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

artistic and the religious solutions agreed
together on this point and reinforced each
other.

The older kind of life certainly had great
advantages. To life it gave an inner equili-
brium and to man the consciousness of being
encompassed by assured truth. It thus guar-
anteed a restfulness incomparably greater than
was given to later periods. But it rested on
a presupposition with the overthrow of which
the whole became untenable, the presupposi-
tion that in those achievements of the past,
on which it relied, the highest conceivable
limit had been reached and absolute truth
attained. If essentially new tasks arose and
essentially new powers were developed, if far-
reaching changes took place in the funda-
mentals of life and in the general view of
reality, there was bound to be opposition to
the finality of earlier views. This opposition
could not be smoothed over by a friendly
agreement, but led to a complete breach with
the old way of life. For as soon as the con-

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 131

viction gained ground that tradition did not
exhaust the fulness of life, that it left many
problems untouched, the solution of which
was possible and, in fact, absolutely necessary,
as soon as, in a word, the incompleteness and
the inadequacy of the old way was put beyond
doubt, its claim to be final and complete was
bound to seem an intolerable presumption,
which must be contested with the greatest
vigour in the interests of truth. It seemed
wrong that the achievements of a particular
age should be stereotyped and made the
standard for all ages. Such an attempt might
lead to the reproach that the temporal usurps
the rights of the eternal, and the human the
rights of the divine, in a way which can no
longer be tolerated. But the decision of the
resulting conflict depends on the question
whether the modern period has, or has not,
really given rise to a new life of an inde-
pendent spiritual character. If it has done
so, if it has unfolded new forces in the region
that lies beyond all human opinion, and made

18« THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

something essentially new out of life and
reality, if there is a culture which is speci-
fically modern, and if there is a specifically
spiritual type of the modern man, then the
foundation is overthrown on which the
medieval doctrine of persistence rested, and
the maintenance of life on medieval lines
becomes impossible.

But when the new life first arose, it was
not by any means the intention of those who
introduced it to bring in something new and
different. They believed rather that what
they introduced would only free the old life
from the disfigurement to which it had been
subjected, and would restore it to its original
condition. Thus the Renaissance and the
Reformation were not consciously, as they
were actually, the originators of a new life,
but the restorers of an old one. They did
not want something new, they wanted the
old and nothing but the old. It was in the
seventeenth century, with the advance of the
Enlightenment, that the new became fully con-

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 133

scious of its own nature : old and new became
clearly separated, and it was inevitable that a
middle period {medium cevum) should be
interpolated between the two, and hence the
name " middle ages." Thus was invented the
usual division of history, subject to all the
defects which are inseparable from divisions
of this kind, but nevertheless an unavoidr
able necessity. But at the same time it was
recognized that human existence is in motion.
The modern period could not enforce its
own right to exist without breaking with the
traditional doctrine of persistence.

It is not for us to consider now how the idea
of movement has made its way more and more
into the different departments of life, and how
everything which stood in opposition to it, and
finally even organic forms, have been brought
under its category. At present we are con-
cerned only with the general nature of life and
work. And here the most significant feature
is the change in the fundamental presupposi-
tion, as compared with earlier schemes of life,

134 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

a change which becomes continually more
evident. To the Greeks the world presented
itself, in spite of all the movement that goes
on, as a ready-made and rounded-off whole,
and on their view there was no necessity
for any essential alteration. Christianity, on
the other hand, which estimated things
from the moral point of view, found the
world full of error and guilt, and indeed
burdened with a pervading contradiction, a
contradiction so grave that its solution could
not be expected from any movement on
the part of the world itself, but only from
some supra-mundane power. The main stream
of modern thought does not acknowledge any
such dualism : it is inclined to connect the
divine with the world and to merge the one
completely in the other in a monistic system
of thought. But if in this it approached the
ancient view, there is the essential difference
that now the world is not thought of as a
finished product but as in a state of becoming,
and that it calls upon man to act on his own

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 135

account to a far greater extent than did the
earlier schemes of life. Philosophical thought
thus understands the world as the whole of
being, which strives to attain its highest level
by its own movement. The double conviction
that the world, as we have it, is extremely im-
perfect, and that it is making sure and certain
progress towards perfection, changes the whole
tone of life and the nature of work in im-
portant particulars, as compared with earlier
periods. If it was formerly the task of science
to distinguish and emphasize permanent forms
in the transitory series of sensible phenomena,
and to show that the perfect form is the
directing power and final goal of movement,
we now find that the significance of time for
the production of reality meets with full recog-
nition. The important point is to make the
existing state of things completely intelligible
by following its evolution from the very be-
ginning, and thus win for man more power over
things. For the man who begins by under-
standing the evolution of things is able to

136

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

intervene in their formation, and can direct
them to human ends. When knowledge
therefore ceases to be a contemplation of
reality, and becomes a re-creation, it comes
into closer connection with life and increases
its activity. Science is the leader in the
, movement towards subjecting the world to
the human spirit.

The new life does not accept any part of
the existing condition of things as absolutely
unchangeable. Even in the case of the most
difficult problems it holds out the hope of a
better future. One task is no sooner finished
than another comes into sight ; everywhere we
see the capacity for increase, unlimited possi-
bilities are disclosed. In the first place, man
in his own nature appears capable of progress,
and not bound down to a fixed endowment of
nature. For nothing appears more character-
istic of a reasonable being than an indwelling
of infinite life and effort. Hence no definite
limit is set to its powers, but they seem to be
able to grow and to keep on growing. And

CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE 137

further, both political and economic life seem
to be capable of progress to an unlimited
extent. This progress seems to take two
directions: firstly, the getting rid of all irration-
ality from human affairs, as far as possible,
and the progressive transformation of our
existence into a kingdom of reason, and,
secondly, the effort to ensure as far as possible
to all individual members of the community a
share in material as well as in spiritual goods.
And since spiritual work in all its ramifications
is in a state of movement, the idea of progress
determines to a continually increasing extent
the general character of life. Since movement
continually breaks down more and more all
the goals which lie ahead of it, and fashions
them afresh according to its changing needs,
movement itself, gathering force as it goes,
comes more and more to be the chief content
of life. Finally it will have nothing beyond
itself ; the increase of power becomes the
supreme ideal, which is bound to come into
violent collision with the old ideal of giving

138 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

form to things. As Hegel says, " becoming is
the truth of being."

Movement cannot win control over life in
this way, or even claim to control it, without
overcoming the irregularity which had hitherto
clung to it and subjected it to severe reproach.
It must show that it possesses in itself stability
and coherence, and is moving in a fixed direc-
tion. Movement fulfils these conditions when
it becomes evolution. For the conception of
evolution makes all the different phases into
steps in one progressive movement, in which
one part is connected with another, and all
contribute to one general result. But this
conception of evolution can extend over the
whole of reality and shape it in a single mould.
It is precisely the thinkers generally regarded
as the leading representatives of modern
thought who have given a particularly im-
pressive exposition of the idea of evolution
conceived cosmically. It is thus with Leibniz
and his innumerable monads, all of them
moving with slowly but surely increasing

TIME AND ETERNITY 139

rapidity, the summation of whose progress
amounts to an unceasing advance of reason.
It is so with Hegel, according to whom the
movement of the universe progresses by means
of a constant succession of contradictions,
which arise and are overcome. Every indi-
vidual thing, according to its particular nature,
must plunge into the stream of becoming, but
it is permanently preserved in that stream as an
element in the universal. But the whole con-
ception of movement in the modern sense has
been most powerfully expressed by the poet :

" In the currents of Life, in Action's storm,

I wander and I wave,

Everywhere I be !

Birth and the grave,

An infinite sea,

A web ever growing,

A life ever glowing,
Thus at Time's whizzing loom I spin,
And weave the living vesture that God is mantled in." 1

Such changes give rise to a new relation
between time and eternity, and at the same

1 Faust, Sc. I. Sir T. Martin's translation.

140 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

time alter the value assigned to the present.
But a closer view soon shows that the modern
period does not speak with one voice on the
subject, that the idea of evolution is itself
evolved, and has passed through three chief
phases. The first phase owes its origin to
religion, and especially to religious speculation,
as it begins with Augustine and is continued
by philosophical mysticism. Just as the world
in its diversity is conceived of as a representa-
tion, an unfolding of the divine unity, so the
course of time is an unfolding of eternal being.
Time cannot thus become an expression of
eternity without itself gaining in significance,
and being co-ordinated to a greater degree
into a continuous whole. Here everything
that happens in time gains its content and
value from eternity, and hence remains directed
beyond its immediate existence towards eter-
nity. In mysticism, too, the soul of man,
though it participates in the work of the
world, retains a profound peace untouched by
the confusion of the world. The next phase

TIME AND ETERNITY

141

has both an artistic and a speculative aspect.
It brings the eternal more and more into the
world as we know it, and there finally merges
it completely. The movement of reality is
conceived of as the unfolding of an all-embrac-
ing being, which thereby first attains to com-
plete realization. Goethe has given the most
impressive exposition of the artistic aspect, and
Hegel of the philosophical. On this view life
is not referred beyond itself to a transcendental
being, but every individual manifestation stands
within the life of a whole and is controlled by
it. In this way life can gain depth in itself,
and in the stream of time can grasp that which
is above time. As Goethe said, the moment
can become a representative of eternity. The
final phase of the doctrine of evolution is when
it reaches the level of natural science and
Positivism. In this phase everything which
makes any claim to eternity is placed entirely
behind the process of life, and this vital process
is regarded as consisting almost entirely of the
movement and displacement of the elements.

1 42

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Then everything that takes place happens in a
single plane, and is entirely exhausted in being
what it is ; it has in no way to represent or to
serve anything that exists behind itself. Hence
there can be no question as to its having any
sort of meaning. In this view life falls asunder
completely into a mere juxtaposition of indi-
vidual processes and a succession of moments,
which may to a certain extent be summed
up but do not form an inwardly connected
system.

These phases do not merely follow one
another. The second in particular maintains
its position alongside the third, but the main
tendency of the movement is to concentrate
itself more and more upon the sphere of im-
mediate existence and to reject all persistence
with ever greater vigour. At the same time
there is outlined with increasing sharpness a
particular type of life which fully develops the
opposition between the old and the new way
of life. On the earlier view, the highest aim
was to live one's life from the side of eternity,

TIME AND ETERNITY

143

and to retain in life the presence of something
eternal. But now the aim is to bind up life
as closely as possible with the stream of time
and the changing moment. Formerly, un-
changeable ideals were held up for the guidance
of action. Every enterprise had to be measured
by these ideals and to conform to them, but
now they are felt as intolerably narrow and
oppressive ; equal rights and the fullest freedom
are demanded for everything which aspires
and struggles upwards. Thus life is subject
to incessant change ; but the more it changes
and the less it marks time and stagnates, the
higher it seems to stand. Such mobility gives
it immeasurably more freedom and fulness,
freshness, and intimacy. And the individual
departments of life are subject to similar
changes. Education undergoes an essential
change in that man is not now required to be
educated for an ideal which transcends time, but
for the needs of his own period. Legislation
has no longer to enforce uniform demands,
but must correspond to the existing situation

144 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and unreservedly follow its changes. In such
a connection the conception of modernity
gains a peculiar significance and power of
attraction. If life is to be a success, the chief
requisite seems to be, not to cling tenaciously
to the old but to seize the fleeting and transi-
tory moment, to make the most out of it, and
to adapt one's life continually to it. It is only
if we do so that it seems to become entirely
our own life and to attain to what in this
connection can be called truth. Thus we get
rid of all rigidity ; values become fluid, and
the stream of things carries off everything in
its course.

But what we thus desire for ourselves we
must also grant to other periods ; we cannot
understand them from our point of view, we
must try to understand them from their own ;
we cannot measure them by an absolute
standard, but by that which they set them-
selves to attain. Hence our historical judg-
ments are only relative, and man develops
the faculty of placing himself completely at

TIME AND ETERNITY

145

the point of view of all past systems, of re-
constructing them and re-living them. Life
thus gains an inmeasurable breadth and un-
limited elasticity ; whatsoever moves mankind
seems also to belong to us.

But all the advantages which result from
such mobility of life, such flexibility and
adaptability on the part of the human spirit,
have a reverse side, which may not necessarily
affect the individual but spiritual work as a
whole. All spiritual work needs co-ordination ■
of the diversity of things, and control of our
first impressions. It is impossible if the stream
of phenomena carries man hither and thither
like a plaything ; it needs a fixed standpoint,
and can only find it in opposition to the dis-
integration which we have described. Hence,
in spite of the mobility of life, the creative
efforts of the modern period have been eagerly
directed from the beginning towards finding
some sort of fixed point, from which the realm
of movement might be understood and con-
trolled. The only question is whether the

146 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

modern period has found such a fixed point
and turned it to account, whether it could find
it at all in the circle of life which it marked
off.

There are two ways in particular in which
the modern period has sought to meet the
advance of movement by something that is
fixed : firstly, from the standpoint of philosophy,
and, secondly, from the standpoint of natural
science. Thought in the one case and natural
law in the other, both of which are themselves
exempt from all change, seemed to promise a
sure support for the whole of life.

Modern philosophy begins when Descartes
turns from the overthrow of all tradition and
the uncertainty of the existence of the external
world, to the thinking ego as the Archimedean
point, the existence of which no one can doubt.
But when Descartes carries out his method in
detail, it appears that it is not so much the
individual point as thought itself which is to
lead the investigator to certainty. What is
clear and distinct for thought may be regarded

TIME AND ETERNITY

147

by us as truth. But thought could not
recognize anything as clear and distinct if it
were merely an empty vessel or a mass that
yielded to every stimulus. For this purpose
it must possess a fixed original endowment,
and this endowment was thought to consist of
indwelling truths, the so-called innate ideas
(idece innatce). Only with such an endow-
ment could it oppose the stream of phenomena,
and undertake to reshape the previous condi-
tion of things according to its own require-
ments. It was not only thinkers like Spinoza
and Leibniz who defended such eternal truths
with complete confidence. Kant was really
defending them in another form when he
maintained that all experience and all change
necessarily presuppose a persistent intellectual *
structure of the mind. The whole of the
Enlightenment also presupposes them when it
endeavours to test everything that is handed
down to it as to its reasonableness, and, if it .
cannot stand this test, to reject it or transform
it. Through such a challenge to prove its

148 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

rights before a timeless reason, the whole of
life is vigorously shaken up, sifted, and renewed;
a culture which rests on a basis of reason
advances in cheerful confidence to oppose the
culture resting on history which had till then
held the field. Thought thus becomes the
measure of all things and the fixed point in
the transitory series of phenomena. The con-
ception of the nature and function of thought
has undergone many changes in the course of
the centuries, but it is a characteristic of the
whole of modern culture that it assigns to
thought that stablishing and regulating function
for which it looked first to the universe and
later on to the Deity. The struggle of
thought to appropriate the whole range of
reality and to bring it under its own laws is
the chief movement of modern times.

But although much has been accomplished
in the struggle, the result has not been an
absolute victory. The carrying out of the
undertaking was met by difficulties both from
within and from without : from within, because

TIME AND ETERNITY 149

the foundation of thought itself gave rise to
grave doubts and difference of opinion ; from
without, because the immeasurable extent of
the field of history offered an obstinate resist-
ance to being enveloped and controlled by
thought, and rejected more and more decisively
all such attempts. Who is the vehicle of
thought, where does it arise, and where is its
centre of activity ? Descartes and the En-
lightenment had no scruples in making the
individual the vehicle of thought, thus pre-
supposing an essential equality of reason in all
individuals. If this presupposition is contested,
and it soon was, then the universal validity of
truth, and truth itself, is overthrown. Kant
met such doubts by the assumption of an
intellectual structure of the human mind
anterior to all difference of individuals, which
comes to light in great products — above all, in
the construction of scientific experience and
the development of the moral law. But
doubts may easily arise as to whether these
products are to be relied on, and are capable

150 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of only one interpretation, and these doubts
will then extend to the common structure of
the mind. When Hegel finally raised thought
to the position of an all-embracing and all-

' moving cosmic power, he thereby surrendered
all connection with the immediate life of the
soul, and attributed to the mind of man a

• complete absoluteness which was bound to
meet with the strongest opposition, especially
in the nineteenth century, with its growing
knowledge of the strict and narrow limits
within which man is confined. Hence we are
met by the dilemma that thought is either
closely bound up with man and is involved in
all the uncertainty and fragmentariness which
cling to human existence, or else that it casts
loose from the connection with man, overstrains
its own powers, and, emulating the bold flight
of Icarus, finally plunges into the void.

Still more comprehensible than this inner
perplexity is the resistance offered by historical
life to the claim to control it made by a
thought that transcends time. This opposi-

TIME AND ETERNITY 151

tion is met with at an early period, and the
advance of historical modes of thought
strengthens it. The experience of history
shows with continually increasing clearness
that the differences and changes of the periods
not only extend to the inner depths of the
soul but also affect the shaping of thought,
that, at the most, certain elementary forms are
of universal occurrence, which however are of
no importance for the content of life. Hegel
made a magnificent attempt to construct a
world out of the forms themselves, and to
bring into this structure the whole of historical
reality. But not only do the living contents
and the individuality of the historical structures
fade away in Hegel's philosophy of history,
but there also arises the strongest contradiction
between history and the necessary demands of
thought. Thought cannot take a general view
of history without detaching itself from it and
treating it as already closed. But this does
away with the possibility of all further move-
ment, and history is inwardly destroyed. But

152 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

if history preserves the right of unlimited
progress, then thought, from the point of view
of history, will be seen to be merely the ex-
pression of a particular time, "time grasped
in thought." But then one period has the
same right as another, and this does away
with the possibility of thought being able to
co-ordinate and illuminate history. If the
first alternative leads to an intolerable fixity,
the second leads to a no less intolerable
relativity. For the great majority of mankind
the movement of history has broken through
the scheme imposed upon it, has gained a
victory over timeless thought, and has vindi-
cated the rights of relativity. Thought has
thus been unable to make good its claim to
raise life of itself to the level of that which is
fixed and eternal.

But still less successful is the attempt to
do so from the side of nature, with the help
of the conception of law. Modern investiga-
tion has transferred the persistent quality of
nature from composite structures to the

TIME AND ETERNITY 153

elements and their modes of action — natural
laws are nothing else. This transference is
no doubt a fact of the highest importance,
but it does not mean that persistence is
surrendered, only that it is carried further
back. But even if these laws of nature could
be simply transferred to the spiritual life, they
would not solve our problem. For although
the course of events may follow simple funda-
mental forms, this does not give life any inner
coherence, and does not direct the diversity
of things to common ends. The reign of law
would still leave us defenceless against the
changing currents of life. We may all think
in accordance with the same logic, and yet,
under the influence of different interests and
apperception - masses, reach fundamentally
different results. Using the same forms of
thought we may reach more and more widely
divergent conclusions.

Hence we are convinced that the element
of fixity, which the modern period on its own
ground opposes to movement, is either itself

154 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

involved in conflict and movement, or else,
so far as it is incontestable, does not satisfy
the demands of the spiritual life and does not
guarantee us the necessary support for our
struggles and aspirations. The general result
then is that the movement which emerges in
the modern period does not find in it any
sufficient counterpoise, that it is therefore
bound to advance further and further with
elemental force, and to destroy everything
that still offers resistance. The same result
is further promoted by the rapid acceleration
of life on its external side— an acceleration
which the latest period has carried out, and
will carry out to a continually increasing
extent, by quickening the means of inter-
course, facilitating the communication of ideas,
massing men in large aggregates, etc. Hence
it is quite conceivable that within the move-
ment itself the more uncompromising forms
are more and more displacing the milder ; that
all the persistent elements offered by the older
conceptions tend to be slurred over and lost,

TIME AND ETERNITY 155

and, in particular, that persistent basis which
the genuine theory of evolution supplied by
its conception of a universal life gradually un-
folding itself. Life becomes more and more ■
an incessant change, a constant letting go
and beginning again, a following of every fresh
attraction, a floating away with the stream of
things. If it is thus transferred entirely into
the immediate present, as we saw, if it is
freed from all the pressure of the past, and
gains an agility and capacity for change which
were formerly unknown, then it flatters itself
that, with this movement towards modernity, *
it has attained the summit of the ages.

But here, too, the rule is verified that the
external victory, the complete permeation of
the world by life-forces, is usually the beginning
of a counter-movement, that the very ex-
clusiveness of success sets limits, and that
what is outwardly still advancing in triumph,
may thus be felt inwardly as inadequate and
even intolerable. The turn of the tide first
becomes noticeable in a sudden revulsion of

156 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

vital feeling, which completely alters the value
ascribed to change. At first it seemed that
the setting of life in motion, the stimulus to
the powers, the continual production of fresh
images, the opening up of ever fresh aims,
the unbounded possibilities, were all pure
gain ; life seemed to be made individual in a
higher degree, and man to be brought in-
comparably nearer to himself. The individual
may still retain this estimate so far as, con-
cerned only with his own welfare, he throws
himself into the stream of life and seeks to
advance on his way. But, as a thinking being,
he cannot help reflecting on the whole, and
asking the question, in all this excitement and
strain, in all this toil and work, what is gained
* for the whole ? And if he does not covertly
bring in other bodies of thought to make up
the deficiency, he cannot fail to recognize the
inner emptiness and meaninglessness of this
life, the break-up of all connections. Hitherto
men had seen only one side of movement,
the inexhaustible wealth of novelties to which

TIME AND ETERNITY

157

it gave rise : they had not seen the other
side, their equally rapid disappearance, and
the unsubstantiality of the inner life that
results from such coming and going. A life
of nothing but change cannot look forward to
the future with any joy or certainty, for where
there are no persistent aims, the future, as
regards its spiritual character, is hid in deep
obscurity, and we cannot tell whether to-
morrow may not bring a complete revolution.
Such a life has no fixed past, and therefore
no history, for the constant change places
things perpetually in a different light ; it is
bound to make our past character and actions
seem as if they did not belong to us, our
own selves dissolve into a kaleidoscopic suc-
cession of pictures. And least of all has such
a life any genuine present ; a present which is
spiritual in its nature. For mere time is not
sufficient for such a present ; the time must
also be filled with a content such as only
persistent and co-ordinating aims can give it.
But the absolute movement which we have

158 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

described resolves life into smaller and smaller
pieces, indeed into separate moments ; every
attempt to grasp the present results in nothing
better than mere opinion, the shadow of a
present. Hence, as a general rule, if this life
does not experience any sort of counteracting
influence, it threatens in spite of all its activity
to become a mere hankering after life, a half-
life or phantom-life. We may add a fact
which has been too often described to detain
us now, viz., that the breaking-up of all con-
nections inevitably hinders the inner elaboration
of impressions and experiences, drives life and
effort more and more to the surface, and
makes them to a continually increasing extent
defenceless and dependent on externals. There
is the further fact that the different movements
in the different departments easily come into
conflict and find themselves at cross purposes,
not only as between different men but also
within the individual himself. If this is really
the case, it can be easily understood how men
grow tired and weary of all the rush and

TIME AND ETERNITY 159

bustle, which is so confused and yet in the
end so empty, how this feeling of weariness
spreads and produces a longing for more per-
sistence, more peace and repose in life. It is
a remarkable feature of the present day that
the old mysticism is regaining its power of
attraction, and that the Indian religions,
which release men from the cares and troubles
of time, are gaining many adherents also in
the West. Is not this to be connected with
the change in vital feeling which we have
described ?

Now, such a change does not prove much
in itself ; it may, after all, be merely a part of
the irregular ebb and flow to which mere
movement reduces life. It can only be of
use in so far as it enables us to take a more
unprejudiced view of the whole problem, and
free ourselves from the one-sidedness of our
previous estimate. And this is in fact what
usually happens in human life. Movements
emerge, seize upon men's minds, and carry
them irresistibly away. Men perceive only

160 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the results of these movements, their progress,
their general direction ; they do not see their
limitations, their presuppositions, the problems
and, may be, the contradictions which emerge
on a closer view. Hence they are proof
against all attack, and no demonstration of
their deficiencies and faults can affect them.
No amount of sober reflection is of avail
against the condition of intoxication with
which they fill mankind. But in the end
some limitation is felt, and then the move-
ment's power of attraction quickly disappears.
All the problems which it involved now stand
out clearly, and the next step is to under-
estimate, and in fact to treat unfairly, what
was so long overestimated. We are ex-
periencing to-day just such a reversal of
opinion with regard to the attempt to reduce
life to mere movement. It is a change which
is first felt in the higher strata of the intel-
lectual atmosphere, and not among the great
majority of people who lag behind any move-
ment and believe that something has come

TIME AND ETERNITY 161

into existence when it has at last attracted
their notice. We are becoming more and
more clearly aware of the presupposition on
wThich alone this belief in movement could
take upon itself the guidance of the whole of
life. The presupposition is that movement is
a sure and constant ascent, that it can, out of
its own resources, overcome all the obstacles
which it meets with or produces out of itself :
on this view it can never give rise to com-
plications against which it is defenceless. In
so far as this widens out to a general view of
the world and history, it involves the demand
not only that our reality shall be rational in
its ultimate nature, but also that man shall
be able to make himself absolutely certain of
it. Rationalism and optimism are here in-
dispensable. But optimism has not only
aroused many misgivings when looked at from
without : from within, also, it very easily
appears superficial and untrue. We see clearly
before our eyes the hard and pitiless struggle

for existence both in nature and among men,

162 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the constraint and insecurity of spiritual life
in the world in which we live, but, above all,
the insufficiency of man for the spiritual tasks
on which the value of his existence depends,
the wide interval between genuine spiritual
culture and what men like to call culture. If
we take a general view, human existence seems
to be a grave contradiction. And, when we
come to the more detailed shaping of existence,
we begin to doubt the presupposition which
underlies the interpretation of history as an
evolution that becomes more and more rational,
viz., the presupposition that movement starts
from a fixed point and makes sure progress
towards its goal, that any doubt which may
arise only concerns details and cannot call in
question movement as a whole. For the
present state of opinion, with its complete
uncertainty as to the final aims of man and
the meaning of his existence, is sufficient proof
that doubt does extend to the whole, and that
the whole, if it is to have any influence upon
us, requires on our part a continuous act of

TIME AND ETERNITY

163

recognition and appropriation. But if this is
the case, then evolution cannot be the last
word : action and decision must come before
evolution. And at the same time we clearly
see what difficulties lie in the relation between
action and evolution, and how easily evolution
can come into collision with the fundamental
conception of history. Where evolution pre-
vails, the order of the whole prescribes what is
to be done at each point, and the direction to
be followed : there is no choice and no freedom
of decision. But without these there can be
no history in the specifically human sense.
To talk of historical evolution is, properly
speaking, an absurdity. Where there is
evolution there is no real history, and where
there is history there is no evolution. For if
we are to have history, the individual must
have freedom of decision, but this is excluded
by evolution.

But, above all, the very attempt to deny it
only demonstrates with greater clearness and
cogency the old truth that there can be no

164 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

real spiritual life unless it is raised above time,
that otherwise the true is subordinated and
sacrificed to mere opinion, the good to mere
utility, and, generally, all independent spiritu-
ality to the trivial round of merely human
activities. Man, too, in the end cannot
tolerate such distortion of the spiritual life,
for it deprives everything which distinguishes
him from nature of its end and meaning, and
condemns his life to absolute emptiness.
Emptiness, however, is more difficult to bear
than pain. Hence the craving after happiness
drives us continually to renew our demand
for a truth which transcends time, and forces
spiritual work, and philosophy in particular,
to seek ways of securing it.

When faith in the power of modern move-
ment thus disappears, and a craving after
some fixed content of life is re-awakened, the
medieval system of the Roman Catholic
Church may seem likely to solve our difficulties
and may summon mankind to return to its
fold. We found that this was the case when

TIME AND ETERNITY 165

we were considering the problem of finding
connections in life. But such a return could
only satisfy a few tired and faltering souls,
for whom the visible and tangible is at the
same time the spiritually certain : it is not
capable of satisfying the demands of the
spiritual life. Medieval thought rested on
the presupposition and conviction that the
height of human achievement in every sphere
had been already reached, that there could be
nothing essentially new. But this presup-
position has been obviously refuted by the
whole course of the modern period, with its
fundamental transformation of human ex-
istence. The man who, to avoid flatly con-
tradicting the evidence of his senses, would
perhaps be willing to recognize movement
outside of religion, and only wished to deny
its existence inside, would by this means
divide human life into two contrary species,
and would assign our efforts to fundamentally
different motives and feelings. He would
produce an inner discord in the soul, which is

166 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

fatal to the vigorous conduct of life, and
absolutely foreign to the middle ages, which
extended the tendency to persistence over the
whole of life. Thus at that time religion
could be regarded as in its whole extent
exempt from all change only because men
unhesitatingly accepted it, just as it was, as
an undivided whole, because they had no
insight into its gradual growth and the con-
ditions of this growth. Only thus could it
be entirely separated from the human sphere
and regarded as a pure revelation of God.
But now the scientific study of history has
brought this department also under its sway,
and proved how it was shaped in detail, very
gradually at first, and under the strong
influences of human needs, interests, and ideas.
It is to confuse the human and the divine,
and to do the divine a grave injustice, if for
that system, which has in great part been
recognized as human and temporal, a venera-
tion is demanded which is the due of the
divine and the eternal alone. Hence we

TIME AND ETERNITY 167

cannot solve our present perplexities by a
return to the middle ages.

But what is true of the middle ages applies
to all the epochs and achievements of the past.
They may help us on our way if we have an
independence of our own to oppose to them,
and if we can thus transmute them into
our own life, but they are quite incapable
of compensating us for the loss of inde-
pendence. We are very fond to-day of
evading the urgent problems of the present
by seizing upon some culminating point of the
past, by according to it unconditional venera-
tion and absolute devotion, and then using it
as a basis from which to supplement and
consolidate the present. In doing so we
usually emphasize the points of contact and
minimize the differences, but we forget that
the present situation sets us problems which
are far too specific and far too pressing to
admit of being solved or even essentially
advanced by such indirect means. This re-
course to history, which is evident to-day in

168

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

all departments of spiritual work, yields at
the best only a substitute for a real life of
our own. A substitute is certainly better
than nothing, but it produces the illusion
that we possess the real thing when we are
inwardly poor, and it threatens to limit our
life to half truths, and indeed untruths.

There is only one way left to overcome
our present perplexities : humanity must go
on with its independent work, it must use its
own powers to bring about a new situation.
The demand for a new type of life and a new
type of culture becomes more and more in-
sistent ; as the present crisis owes its origin
to the whole of life, so it can be overcome
only by a further development of the whole.
The work of philosophy can only be helpful
in this connection in so far as it takes its
place in such a general movement, receives a
stimulus from it, and exercises a return in-
fluence over it. But within the whole, its
first task is to get rid of the illusion of finality,
to open up the way for wider possibilities,

TIME AND ETERNITY

169

and to restart the movement which intrinsic
causes have brought to a standstill. But this
task lent a particular value to a survey of
universal history, as in general, so also in
particular in connection with the problem of
persistence and change : it has given us a
wider view, it has revealed the most diverse
relations and demands which our existence
involves, it can use the experience gained in
the general movement of history to point out
to our own work more definite lines of attack.

The general movement of history has not
steadily followed one line with regard to our
problem, but has swung completely round.
The striving after persistence was predominant
at first, and established its position more and
more firmly in the course of time, until its
own activity came to a complete standstill.
When the modern period began, movement
gained the ascendancy and transformed all
standards and values. But the experience of
mankind left no doubt that the exclusive, or
even the partial predominance of movement

170 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

gravely endangers the spiritual character of
life : thus a reconciliation of the two tendencies
becomes an urgent requirement. But this
reconciliation is impossible, as is sufficiently
shown by the study of history, if both meet
on the same plane and are brought into im-
mediate contact. For then rest relegates
movement to an entirely secondary position,
and condemns life to stagnation, or else move-
ment makes itself master of the whole sphere
and tends towards the break-up of all fixity.
It is impossible to escape this dilemma unless
a division and inner expansion of reality
takes place, which brings rest and movement
not into an oppositional but into a comple-
mentary relationship. This is, however, hardly
attainable otherwise than by a sharper separa-
tion between spiritual life and human existence.
Spiritual life needs to be clearly thrown into
relief against human conditions in order to
preserve its independence and transcendence of
time, which are indispensable to its substance.
In such a separation, to be sure, this substance

TIME AND ETERNITY

171

must not entirely disappear from the ken of
man : it must somehow be a part of his own
nature, and it must gradually work itself out
from the indeterminateness of its beginning
and allow us to take full possession of it, if
this separation is to give rise to a particular
kind of life. It would not be of much help
to us if we could only open up the depths of
our being with difficulty, and get a glimpse
of them as in a dream ; we must be able to
place ourselves immediately in them and share
in their contents if our life is to undergo
differentiation, gain thereby an inner breadth,
and at the same time overcome the opposition
between persistence and movement. But here
movement is also indispensable, for the appro-
priation of these depths needs much hard work
and toil, which is subject to the conditions of
time, and can only advance very gradually.
But a movement of this kind has a fixed
goal and a history. It is directed towards a
spiritual substance and serves to promote the
unfolding of a persistent truth : it cannot be a

178 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

mere succession of periods of time ; it becomes
a gradual movement away from time, and a
progressive construction of a present which
transcends time. When history is of this
kind, our study of it need not helplessly follow
the succession of periods, but can distinguish
in the contents of history what belongs to the
mere temporal situation from that which is
eternal in its nature and can exercise a
permanent influence. Such a study of history
may lead to a deliverance from mere history,
and to the revelation of a present which
transcends time.

But such a treatment of history cannot
arise and make its way unless wre grant that
the world and human existence contain greater
depths than are evident at first sight. The
contradiction, that a truth which transcends
time appears and plays a part in this world,
which is in a state of becoming, can only be
resolved if this world has an eternal order
behind it, and, along with everything in it
which is spiritual in its nature, serves to pro-

TIME AND ETERNITY

173

mote the unfolding of this order. If such
depths are present in our world, in human
creative efforts also we can distinguish a
spiritual substance from everything which is
merely temporal, and the apprehension of
this substance enables us to overcome mere
time. Then, particularly in the case of all
that is great, we can recognize through the
veil of time a life and work which transcends
the world and is valuable for all ages. Hardly
anyone at the present day will profess his
adherence to the doctrines which such a per-
sonality as Plato formulated, or the practical
proposals which he made. But if, in spite of
this, we hold Plato in the highest honour, and
treat him as a living and powerful influence
among us at present, we only do so because
we recognize a creative power and a particular
shaping of life, which may be called Platonic,
and which was embodied in time in Plato's
doctrines and proposals, but was by no means
exhausted in them. The same is true also of
general movements of historical life. In many

174 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ways we are out of sympathy not only with
the ideas and dogmas of early Christianity,
but also with the contemporary feelings and
tone, but this does not in the least degree
exclude the possibility that the revelation of
spiritual life accomplished by it should pre-
serve an indestructible freshness of youth and
remain an ever-changing problem to the ages.
Only, our life must not be lived on one plane
in which temporal and eternal, merely human
and spiritual, meet indiscriminately, but rather
there must be an inner gradation in it, which
takes place in virtue of the independence of
the spiritual life — a gradation which distin-
guishes as well as re-unites spiritual substance
and the human appropriation of it. As, in
order to be fully possessed by man, this sub-
stance must first be acquired, a movement will
arise here which, however, will not appear as
an aimless journey to an infinite distance, but
as a striving of life to return to itself, to raise
and consummate its existence.

This new way of treating history, this

TIME AND ETERNITY 175

esoteric way, as it might be called, produces
a radical change of view, which is also seen in
connection with the problem of persistence
and movement. Here, too, the earlier periods
must not be regarded as a dead past, but as
something which remains bound to us by a
community of work, and co-operates with us
towards the up-building of a present which
transcends time. Ancient thought could make
such a point of the persistent only because it
regarded the condition of the world as normal
and needing no essential change, and because
it believed that life was to be satisfied solely
and entirely by its own efforts in raising itself
to the status of a perfect work of art. Later
experience has shown that this conclusion was
premature, and that, in particular, human life
contains far too many complications and con-
tradictions to form at once a harmonious
whole. But, however much these facts
compel us to go beyond anything which the
ancients attained or attempted, they do not
invalidate the main motive of these en-

176 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

deavours. Faith in the ultimate rationality
of reality is the permanent basis of all spiritual
life and effort : otherwise it immediately loses
its support and is bound to collapse. Equally
indestructible is the thought that life has to
seek satisfaction not in the attainment of any
external good but in its own unfolding and
activity. Although the exact nature of the
activity may have to be differently conceived,
and the goal may recede to a far greater dis-
tance, the fundamental thought is indispens-
able if life is to be completely independent and
really self-sufficient.

Christianity destroyed this restful optimism,
and threw mankind into a state of great agita-
tion, by revealing grave disorders in the state
of the world and life. The deepest root of
these disorders was found in the ethical situa-
tion, and the struggle against such perversions
was made the cardinal point of life. It has
often laid these disorders too directly to the
charge of the individual ; it has applied ethical
considerations too directly to the whole

TIME AND ETERNITY

177

breadth of the universe ; it has not developed
its own power of affirmation to its utmost
capacity, and, under the influence of periods
of exhaustion, it has been too ready to
dictate its own permanent form. But what-
ever changes may be necessary in the tradi-
tional order, the great revolution remains
irreversible which delivered life from the sway
of all merely natural processes, made a real
history possible, and, by the opposition of
affirmation and negation, stirred life to its
foundations. The peaceful and even course
of human existence is thus destroyed for ever :
the new problems which are raised can never
again disappear.

We saw how the modern period began by
giving complete recognition to movement, but
we also saw this exaggerated to such an extent
that movement was to produce all the contents
of life. This attempt was bound to miscarry,
but such a failure must not make us forget for
a moment that it was this feature in life which

first brought into prominence not only the

178 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

incompleteness of human existence but also
its capacity for progress, and thus gave an
immense impulse to our efforts. This has
brought about a new situation : we may
perhaps struggle and rise above it, but we
cannot simply treat it as if it had never
existed.

All these different facts call for recognition
at the present day, and prevent all immediate
recurrence to one particular period. If they
are to be reconciled with one another, not by
a superficial compromise, but by coming to an
understanding with one another, we must con-
siderably extend the frame-work of our life
and re-shape the vital process. It is obvious
that this is impossible without the vigorous
co-operation of philosophy, without the help
which it can give by opening up the way and
sketching the country to be traversed. The
perplexities of life necessarily drive us back to
philosophy and set it new problems.

But philosophy will hardly be able to help
in this work if, in dealing with these questions,

TIME AND ETERNITY 179

it does not make use of the experiences of the
general movement of history and gain there-
from definiteness of direction. Above all, it
must seek for itself some fixed standpoint,
and the experience of history has shown that
it can hope to find this standpoint not in a
being beyond the process of life but only
in that process itself. This process again it
cannot understand as the evolution of a unit
confronting the world : it must lay hold of the
life of the world in the very process itself.
Such a world-life, however, cannot be reached
by a freely ranging thought, but only by a
self-centred spirituality, which partakes of the
essence of things and moulds reality. Such a
spirituality rises above the activities of the
individual faculties, and also shows in great
detail the task which thought has to accomplish
and the direction it has to take. Hence philo-
sophy cannot turn immediately to the uni-
verse ; it must first strive to deepen life by
introspection, and then try to discover connec-
tions in life, and root itself firmly in them. It

180 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

is only after such a strengthening process that
it is equal to dealing with the world around us.
Since, however, these connections in life are
not immediately apparent to us, but are only
revealed by means of work and struggle with
resisting influences, it follows that we are
involved in movement of all kinds, and need
have no fear of relapsing into a permanent
state of dull inactivity. But if in our search
we are encompassed by spiritual connections
and guided by spiritual necessities, if the
spiritual life itself affords a firm foundation
which is at the same time the highest goal of
human endeavour, and if in this way what is a
certain fact becomes at the same time a difficult
task, then life, with all its movement, will not
lose itself in uncertainty; however much it
may appear to be struggling towards an un-
certain and distant goal, it remains in the end
occupied with itself and anchored in its own
being. But if philosophy sets itself the task
of giving a scientific form to its fundamental
vision, and deducing a corresponding line of

TIME AND ETERNITY 181

conduct, it is then equal to dealing with the
opposition between rest and movement ; it can
then reconcile the eternal and the temporal,
and can use them both to raise life to a higher
level.

CHAPTER III.

The Outer World and the
Inner World.

Nothing drives man to philosophy with more
urgency than a contradiction which arises
within himself and makes him uncertain as
to his own life and nature. We first find
that we are sentient beings and form part
of a visible world, from which we receive a
constant series of impressions and which makes
continual demands on us. But, at the same
time, introspection teaches us that we have no
direct experience of external things, but only
of our own subjective states, and that there-
fore what confronts us as an external reality
must be evolved from within. Hence two
realms arise which cannot be directly co-

182

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 183

ordinated, and each strives to subordinate the
other to itself, and indeed, as far as possible, to
absorb it. The sensible world treats the life
of the soul as a by-product, a mere reflection
and shadow ; the psychical world, on the other
hand, is inclined to degrade the sensible to a
mere appearance which is purely subjective.
According as we decide in favour of one or
the other, our whole view of life will be com-
pletely altered : different goods will attract us,
different aims will control us, and this may
easily be exaggerated to the antinomy that
what from the one point of view seems valu-
able and indispensable is from the other per-
verse and reprehensible. The one regards the
increase of material happiness as the supreme
good, the other looks upon it as hindering our
efforts to attain the right goal : to the one,
absorption in the inner world is the acme of
life ; to the other, it is a lapse into the vague
and the vacuous. Where are we now to find
out what we are and what we are not ? This
is a problem which can never be postponed

184 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and handed over to the future. The urgency
with which it calls for our decision is no less
than our certainty that we are alive to-day,
and wish to-day to attain satisfaction. Now
our immediate impressions bring us to an irre-
concilable opposition : we must therefore get
beyond them, and what can be of any assistance
to us except philosophy ?

In reality philosophy has taken up the
problem from the beginning, and all the more
because the form which philosophy assumes
depends very largely on the solution of this
problem. But it is in the modern period that
philosophy has devoted special attention to
the subject. For the Enlightenment, with its
violent separation between inner and outer,
between what is conscious and what is ex-
tended, cleared the situation and sharpened
the contrast. This made a definite solution a
matter of urgency, and men sought to find it
by making the problem the main subject of
investigation and comparing the different
solutions that were possible. It was easy to

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 185

take in these possibilities at a glance, and their
number has not increased. The two worlds
seem to be fundamentally different as regards
their contents, and yet in real life inseparably
bound up with one another. Which, then, is
to take precedence, the maintenance of the
specific character of each or their connection
with one another ? Where the first alternative
is chosen the result is dualism. If, on the
other hand, we emphasize the connection of
the two, we must press on to a unity which
transcends the opposition. There are thus
three different ways of reaching a solution.
The first regards the material world as the
only reality, and attempts to derive all
psychical life from it. On the second view,
the psychical is the only world that exists, and
contains the material world in it. The third
strives to attain a unity embracing both sides,
which are regarded as the unfolding, the
expression, the manifestation of the unity.
Hence, beside dualism we find materialism,
spiritualism, and monism in the narrower sense

186 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of the word. By removing the core of reality
from one centre to another, each of these
attempts places many things in a clearer light
and co-ordinates much that is otherwise left
incoherent. But each also meets with peculiar
obstacles and must, in some way or other, try
to overcome them. An enormous amount of
effort is expended in doing so, but the struggle
still goes on with varying success, and the
adherents of each viewr show a continually
recurrent capacity for believing that they can
finally refute their opponents.

Dualism, with its separation betwreen the
material and the psychical worlds, is particularly
calculated to display the specific character of
each. It may boast of the clearness and
definiteness of its conceptions, but it is flatly
contradicted by a craving after unity, the
existence of which is shown by our immediate
perception of the close connection between
body and soul ; by art, which joins the
material and the psychical in intimate union,
and uses the one to enhance the other, and by

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 187

thought, which insists on the ultimate unity
of the universe. In favour of materialism
we have our immediate impressions and the
stubbornness of the sensible world ; its apparent
simplicity and avoidance of all metaphysics :
and the incontestable dependence of allpsychical
processes on physical conditions. But what
has especially promoted its influence among
men is the fact that, in the conflict of opinion,
it is thought to furnish the sharpest weapon
against the oppression of obsolete systems,
against tyranny, illusion, and superstition.
Materialism, however, is contradicted by the
incommensurability of what proceeds from the
soul, of the unity and inwardness of psychical
life, with what takes place in the domain of
matter and motion, and by the building up
of a specifically spiritual life in the sphere
of history and society. The fact that the
external world recedes into the background
and that its existence becomes uncertain as
the result of epistemological reflection, is also
opposed to materialism. From this point of

188 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

view it is impossible to hide from ourselves
that nature, as we see it, does not come to us
from the outside as a ready-made fact, but
that it starts from our own thinking, and,
under the influence of our intellectual organiza-
tion, takes on the shape in which it lies before
us. In fact, the failure to recognize that we
do not find the world but mould it and build
it up from ourselves as centres, threatens to
reduce materialism to a pre-scientific opinion.
Spiritualism pursues the opposite course. It
asserts the primacy of psychical experience
and enforces its assertion, and it shows much
energy in the logical working out of its funda-
mental conception. But it cannot succeed
in making clear the specific character of the
sensational element which contrasts with the
purely inward experience of the soul. Even
if the division is transferred to the soul itself,
it is not thereby overcome, but, rather, is
likely to become still more intolerable.

Monism seems to be the theory most con-
sistent with our knowledge that neither series

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 189

can be reduced to the other, but that, at the
same time, they require some sort of connec-
tion ; for monism makes them different but
parallel sides of a single more essential process.
This provides for the unity and also preserves
the difference ; perfect equilibrium seems to
have been reached of valuation and attune-
ment. The only pity is that a keener
examination soon shows that the opposition
is only hidden and put in the background but
not overcome. The parallelism between the
two sides, which it is sought to reach, can
never be attained. As soon as we pursue the
fundamental conception somewhat further, we
find that one side comes into prominence and
relegates the other to a secondary position.
We cannot study the historical forms of
monism without becoming aware that they
have approached, and finally passed over into,
materialism or spiritualism, if indeed the two
conceptions have not clashed and crossed in
the same thinker. This was the case above
all with Spinoza, whose Ethics starts from an

190 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

unmistakably materialistic basis and reaches
spiritualistic conclusions. Thus monism sinks
back into the very confusion which it aimed at
avoiding.

We thus see that a twofold opposition per-
vades the whole problem : we dispute as to
whether there is unity or multiplicity, and we
dispute as to where the unity is to be found.
The one problem involves the other, and the
dispute separates men further and further
instead of bringing them together. How
often has one theory " refuted " the other !
But the conquered and apparently annihilated
theory has always risen up again with re-
newed power. Have all the " refutations " of
materialism prevented it from being the most
widely prevalent view at the present day, and
in fact feeling itself master of the situation ?
Does not the fruitlessness of these learned
disputes indicate that the discussions do not
carry back the matter to the point of diver-
gence— that this, rather, lies further back ?
Another indication pointing to the same

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 191

conclusion is the fact that each separate school
has claimed a triumph over its special obstacles
solely because it has had special views on
what was of primary and what of secondary
importance, because its general view involved
a definite system of values. Hence its thought
depended on the position it took up towards
reality, and this, again, on the work, impressions,
and experiences of the different individuals,
and, in fact, of whole nations and periods. In
the end it is the view which is taken of the
whole of life which lays down the lines for
thought and determines its direction.

Thus the problem is transferred from
thought to life and assumes a new aspect.
For if we ask whether life is to take up its
position outside or inside and conform itself
accordingly, it does not behove us to interpret
an existing process, but first to call the process
into being. For our life is not given us as a
whole without our co-operation, but presents
itself at first as a juxtaposition and succession
of individual processes: the binding into a

192 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

whole is the work of the thinking and active
spirit ; it is an attempt, a venture, which must
always justify itself. But, in the last resort,
such justification is possible, not by any out-
ward achievement, but only if the attempted
solution co-ordinates all diversity and binds it
into a single and unified life. This neces-
sarily raises the whole of life to a higher level,
and enables us to make completely our own
the life which otherwise only streams past us.
It is only such a synthesis, too, which can
overcome the indeterminateness of the initial
situation and give life a definite character.

There are different ways of carrying out this
synthesis which our problem demands. In
the first place, the world of the senses, which
holds us so firmly in its embrace, which links
us imperiously to itself by the obligation of
waging a perpetual struggle for existence,
may become the real scene of life. If so, all
the peculiar powers of the human soul will
rank merely as means and instruments to
bring ourselves into closer relations with

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 193

the sensible world, to appropriate it more
fully, to gain more profit from it than is
possible at the stage of merely animal exist-
ence. But, on the other hand, the life of
humanity in history and society has risen
above the level of the senses : a non-sensuous
life has appeared and continually develops
richer and richer ramifications. Where the
synthesis of the whole seeks its controlling
centre in the new life, the sensible world will
have to be subordinated and can only gain any
value so far as it promotes the unfolding of
this other life. This is the source of the main
opposition — the opposition between a natural-
istic and an idealistic basis for life and culture.
But the relation between idealism and natural-
ism can assume two forms, and this gives rise
to a further division. The new life which
idealism stands for while rising superior to
the sensible world may do one of two things.
It may yet seek to preserve friendly relations
and a close connection with the sensible world,

or else it may stand out in sharp relief against

194 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

it, and venture on absolutely independent paths
of its own. The former species of idealism
may be called immanent, the latter super-
natural. Hence the struggle centres princi-
pally round these three types, naturalism,
immanent idealism, and supernatural idealism.
Dualism, in the sense that there are two
developments of life which run alongside
without affecting one another, and only come
into external contact, is excluded by the crav-
ing of life after unity ; and this also excludes
monism in the sense that there is a total life
embracing two series running parallel courses
in complete independence. The nearest
approach to monism is made by immanent
idealism, with its endeavour to reconcile the
two worlds; while supernatural idealism, which
strives, on the contrary, to hold the two worlds
as far as possible apart, is most closely related
to dualism. History, to be sure, and in par-
ticular the present day, shows a large amount
of dualism in so far as men, and indeed whole
periods, often distribute their efforts along

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 195

different lines, and incline here to a natural-
istic and there to an idealistic mode of thought.
But this is an error which men commit ; it
does not yield a new type of life, and need
only occupy our attention incidentally.

Hence the spiritual struggle goes on
between the leading types which we have
described. But the course of the struggle is
not what we might expect : it does not start
from universal principles and from them go
on to details, but there arise concrete
syntheses of an absolutely individual nature.
These syntheses have, of course, universal
questions and answers behind them, in fact
they radiate a world-philosophy ; but above all
they are characteristic facts in the life of the
world, and it is from their individuality and
actuality of achievement that they derive their
power and significance. For it is only because
they do not merely pore and brood over the
conception of reality but vigorously set them-
selves to produce something real, that they can
raise the level of our existence, open up depths

196 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and powers in the spiritual life which before
were hid, and help us to experiences which are
of lasting value. It is also to be expected
that, so far as there is any systematic connec-
tion in historical life, the later forms of this
life should take up and make use of the ex-
periences of the earlier, and that thus the
experience of the world should be welded into
a unified whole and a general level of spiritual
evolution attained. Anyone who takes a
general view of the whole process can see
what particular form the different syntheses
have given to the relation between the inner
and the outer worlds, and what answer to the
main problem has been involved in the con-
struction of the synthesis ; he can see what
obstacles they met with and how they came
to terms with them, what complications they
fell into, and what further steps they were thus
compelled to take ; finally, he can see how the
overthrow of one synthesis helped the rise of
another, and how the whole process led to a
continual enlargement of the circle of life. A

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 197

study of this kind is primarily historical in its
nature, but it need not consist entirely in the
unrolling of a succession of processes. For if
the attempt is successful to decide, in what has
been accomplished, between that which has
grown out of special presuppositions and
surroundings and that which reveals a per-
manent capacity, and perhaps also permanent
limitations, of the spiritual life, then co-
existence may take the place of succession ;
a present which transcends time may stand
out in relief from the course of the ages, and
seek to maintain its hold on all the real life
which the different epochs have contributed.

The peculiar position which the modern
period takes up towards our problem makes it
a matter of urgency to survey the whole of
history in the way we have described, and
emphasize what is of permanent value. The
traditional systematizations of life gave
idealism an undoubted ascendency; for them
it ranked as an incontestable and indeed self-
evident truth. But now, in opposition to this

198 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

devotion to an invisible world, naturalism has
more and more emphasized the importance of
the visible world, and is thus pressing idealism
further and further into the background. In
addition, the onward movement of culture has
shown the existence of much confusion within
idealism itself, and it has been weakened by
the fact that the new methods of studying
history, with their keener criticism, have
discovered much variation and inconsistency
in the traditional idealistic forms of life which
were formerly accepted without hesitation as
homogeneous. But, in spite of everything,
there are many obstacles in the way of natural-
ism. For idealism has cut its way too deeply
into our convictions, efforts, and conceptions,
to be likely to succumb at once to a bold
assault. But, all the same, we have fallen into
a state of great uncertainty ; the existence of
the invisible world has become doubtful and
the visible world does not satisfy us. Such a
state of uncertainty as to the direction which
life ought to take must inevitably cripple its

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 199

power and joyousness. It is certain that the
crisis can only be overcome by an actual
further development of life ; and it is equally
certain that this development cannot come
down from heaven to us, but must be set in
motion by ourselves. For this purpose we
cannot dispense with the active help of
philosophy in clearing the way, taking bear-
ings, and acting as pioneer. And if the
immediate duty of philosophy in this connec-
tion is to free us from the contingency of the
moment and to bring before us human experi-
ence in its utmost possible range, it will un-
doubtedly be a valuable contribution to this
end if we carry out a critical scrutiny of the
great syntheses of historical life, with their
revelations and experiences.

We naturally begin our journey through
history with the solution which our problem
received when Greek life was at its culmina-
tion. Let us not forget for a moment that
the average life of the time did not attain this
height, but was in many ways sharply opposed

800 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to it. This culminating period, however,
welded life into an artistic whole, which in
a pre-eminent degree embodies for us the
system of immanent idealism. Here the
artistic element is, above all, plastic in its
nature : as regards its spiritual content, life
is a transformation of reality into a whole
endowed with soul, and therefore well ordered
and clearly graded. This process of trans-
formation has two opposite sources — on the one
hand, spiritual activity, and, on the other,
nature as perceived by the senses ; but the
two streams converge and unite to form a
comprehensive vital process which finds its
full satisfaction in itself. Here the spiritual
is certainly the controlling element : it is the
source of all movement, it revivifies and
imposes form on the sensible. The latter,
with its formlessness, may seem at first the
exact antithesis of the spiritual, but to a
deeper study it soon reveals itself as some-
thing which expects and struggles towards the
ordering and quickening influence of spirit.

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 201

In this way both can meet as elements in a
harmonious life, and the one can help the
development of the other. For even the
higher element, which imposes form on the
lower, is not perfect and complete without the
help of the other : it is only by the subjuga-
tion of matter that it attains the full measure
of its own power, development, and perfection.
This type of life gives both spiritual life and
nature, to use these abbreviated expressions,
a characteristic form and task, as it thus
establishes a friendly co-operation between
the two. The spiritual, however much it is
raised above the sensible, does not sever itself
from the one reality which embraces them
both : it does not form for itself an inner life
which neglects the world, but it finds its task
in uniting and revivifying this world and
raising it to a higher level. Hence in its
inmost nature it is an incessant working and
creating, virile power and joyous activity ; its
fundamental impulse thus seems to be towards
the undeviating pursuit of the true and the

202 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

good. At the same time, however, the
sensible, because of its close connection with
the spiritual, remains indispensable at all its
stages. Whatever stimulus to the senses life
offers is recognized and retained ; only it must
fit in and subordinate itself to the whole ; it
must occupy a definite place and be bound by
definite limits ; but at the same time it will
be purified and ennobled. Hence the charac-
teristic and great achievement of this type of
life is, above all, that it has brought together
into the closest and most fruitful connection
spirit and nature, form and matter, and has
thus made the spiritual vividly near to us and
raised the sensible to a higher level. Here all
oppositions seem to be reconciled, all contra-
dictions overcome ; life is co-ordinated into a
unified whole without detracting in any way
from the diversity of things. Hence it can
feel itself firmly established on its own basis
and equal to dealing with all the complications
of existence.

Such a type of life is seen among the Greeks

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 203

in its purest development in the sphere of
plastic art. Nowhere else in the whole range
of history is a world of spiritual objects and
values brought so near to man in an immediate
present ; nowhere else are the visible and
invisible worlds so closely interwoven. But
philosophy also takes part in this movement,
and does so in the first place, at least where it
gives expression to the Greek mode of life in
its purest form, by uniting the inner and outer
world, under the control of the former, into a
life which rests upon itself. It is Aristotle
who gives the completest scientific expression
to this view. But, apart from the particular
contents of Greek philosophy, we find merely
in the mode of its operation a unique recon-
ciliation between the inner and the outer.
For in it content and form are not separated,
and thought is not left painfully struggling
with a refractory matter, but the work of
philosophy does not cease until it has over-
come all contradiction and given a clear
and exact representation of thought. Such

204 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

efforts on the part of philosophy have pro-
duced at all stages of the movement of
history well-marked types of thought, which
have indelibly impressed themselves on the
consciousness of humanity.

A similar creative activity pervades the
whole of Greek life. All the inner life that
strives to find outward expression succeeds in
gaining complete embodiment, and everything
that is external has soul and shape put into it.
It is this above all that gives rise to a coherent
spiritual reality and lends the life which is here
unfolded a wonderful power of attraction.
Much that is temporal and particular may also
come in, but the heart and core of the whole
lies beyond all contingency and is capable of
exercising a permanent influence. For here the
primary phenomenon of the form makes itself
clearly and strongly felt ; the fact is convincing
that, on a spiritual basis, the inner can mould
itself on the outer and the outer can become
an expression of the inner. This gives clear
expression to a general experience of human

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 205

life, the experience that, in life, the inner is
imperfect in many ways, and that it can pass
from indefinite outline to definite shape only
if it can find outward expression. In this
connection the outer, far as it may fall short
of being a factor with equal rights, yet seems
indispensable in order to drive the inner to
definite decision and complete organization ;
with its power of stimulation and reaction it
is an important element in the process of life.
All artistic creation proves the truth of this,
and thereby furnishes, as Goethe said, the
happiest assurance of the eternal harmony of
existence. But the clearest proof of it is the
indirect one from the experience of humanity.
For wherever form has been despised and
neglected, life has soon degenerated and finally
sunk into barbarism. Form, with its close
union of inner and outer, is indispensable in
order to call forth spiritual life, bring it to full
power, and make it penetrate the breadth of
things. Hence it can be easily understood
how it was possible that form should become

206 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the central conception of a cult of immanent
idealism.

But just as the creative efforts of the Greeks
show us this at its highest, so their experience
also proves the existence of many limitations
and complications. These are bound to be-
come objections and obstacles if the artistic
order described above is taken as the final
achievement and the whole of our life. In the
first place, this solution contains presupposi-
tions which are by no means self-evident. It
can only form the highest achievement of life
if the spiritual impulse is strong, and, with its
superior powers, can subdue and shape the
sensible world ; if, in addition, the life of the
senses is healthy, if its natural power to strive
upwards is unspoilt, and if it willingly fits into
the frame that is provided for it ; and if, finally,
the movements from the one to the other
unite in ready and friendly fashion to form a
common life. All together demand that life
should attain a height which is only reached
under special circumstances, and which deter-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 207

mines the general character of existence only
in rare periods, and then only for a spiritual
aristocracy.

We also find complications in the funda-
mental nature of this artistic idealism, so far
as it claims the direction of the whole of life.
The unification of form and matter must not
be a mere combination and arrangement of
them. Their efforts to come together can
only yield a spiritual content if form has a
soul and can communicate it to the whole of
its product. But whence is form thus endowed
with soul ? This leads to the further question,
how are we to conceive in this connection of
the position of spiritual life generally ? If it
possesses a superiority over the formative
process, and if, in order to preserve the purity
of the form, this superiority is vigorously
emphasized, then there arise two worlds, as
Plato clearly shows us. But this gives rise to
enormous complications. If form, however,
is to operate only within the process, as the
tendency is, especially in the case of Aristotle,

208 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

then it threatens to lose in spiritual content
and has difficulty in preserving its purity.
Here we recognize the Achilles' heel of this
artistic idealism. On one alternative it pre-
supposes a large amount of inner life, which is
self-contained and self-sufficing: in this case
human life can hardly find complete satisfaction
in mere systematization, mere art becomes too
narrow for it. The second alternative is that
the moulding and shaping are treated as com-
plete ends in themselves : from this it is not
far to the position that they are a mere embel-
lishment of existence as it is given, a mere
refinement of life, and thus they easily lose
their significance. Thus the artistic solution
points beyond itself to a further totality of
life.

The later ages of antiquity place this problem
before us in broad outline. The sensible and
the spiritual, which were so closely united
when creative effort was at its height, dissolve
the union and diverge further and further.
The spiritual tries more and more to acquire

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 209

a complete inwardness. The result of this
tendency is that, with the vigorous co-opera-
tion of philosophy, first of all morality and
then religion becomes independent. But,
however much depth of soul is thereby won,
and to however large an extent sense-existence
finally sinks to a mere symbol, the spiritual life
is able to give no effective content to the con-
dition of inward isolation and self-sufficiency
which it reaches. The main reason for this is
that thought desires to produce a reality from
itself, while as a matter of fact it only comes
to forms and relations which strive to detach
themselves from all perception, and float over
reality like ill-defined shadows. In this way,
to be sure, the spiritual wins a realm of its
own, but its emptiness would be immediately
perceived if religious feeling did not in-
cessantly revivify and put warmth into the
cold products of thought. But as culture
becomes increasingly polished and subjective,
the sensible element loses more and more the

robustness of an earlier period and sinks into

210 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

feeble refinement, and indeed inward corrup-
tion. It is not to be wondered at that the
spiritual life became hostile to the sensible,
that men not only strove to repress the latter
as far as possible, but that asceticism made
this repression the main content of life. In
spite of this change, the old ideal of the
artistic shaping of life retains its influence in
many directions, and form continues to rank
as a conception of high value. But it only
does so in opposition to the main stream of
life, though the opposition passed unnoticed,
and it cannot alter the fact that the classical
harmony of the two worlds is transformed in
the end into a sharp division. The whole
course of Greek history presents us with the
spectacle of the gradual retreat of the sensible
world before the spiritual. In the beginning
the sensible world took complete possession of
man, but the craving after spiritual self-pre-
servation drives him to the elaboration of a
super-sensible world. It was not Christianity,
and certainly not the modern period, which

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 211

first gave rise to the idea of a purely inward
life : the Greeks won it for the general system
of culture by painful work and experience, and
thereby prepared the ground for new systema-
tizations of life.

Christianity also turns away from the
sensible world, but it succeeds in giving this
self-centred and self-sufficing inner life a great
work to do and a rich content. It ac-
complishes this when, in unmistakable con-
nection with later Judaism, it transfers the
centre of gravity of life from the intellectual
and cosmic to what is ethical and personal.
The result is a complete transformation, since
the fundamental relation of human life is no
longer the relation to a visible or invisible
universe, but the relation to a perfect Spirit
who is above the world. In this way new
aims and standards are revealed which bring
the whole of life face to face with tasks of
great importance. The object to be aimed
at is union with this perfect Spirit, a demand
for which the existing condition of humanity

218 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

is not only inadequate, but with which it
even appears to be in direct contradiction.
To end this conflict, which involves the whole
of the soul, now becomes the supreme
necessity. This is impossible if we start from
the existing condition of the soul ; for this
purpose a new and purer nature is needed,
and hence the task is raised above all human
capacity. Such a necessity for what is im-
possible must bring about a huge convulsion.
But if the conflict grows more acute,
Christianity shows a way of overcoming it ;
it confidently preaches a redeeming and
sanctifying love, which frees man from all
perplexity, enables him to share in the per-
fection of divine life, and vouchsafes him full
blessedness.

On this scheme the inner life itself contains
great contrasts, movements, and experiences.
The utmost extremes of absolute despair and
certain assurance are at work and intensify
one another. The tension of the whole is
increased by the conviction that the trans-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 213

formation of human life is not a mere private
concern of man, but that the refusal of it
signifies a revolt against the divine will, a
violation of a sacred world-order, and there-
fore involves the disintegration of man.
Hence this life will necessarily feel that it is
the heart and core of the whole of reality ; it
will regard all other life as a mere setting,
and will grant it no independent significance.
At the same time it must uphold its complete
superiority over all nature. It not only
understands nature around us as a work of
spirit: it is more important that, within
man, it puts on a lower level all activity
which proceeds from merely natural powers,
and stringently prohibits its entry into the
sphere of moral action. Thus a thinker like
Augustine, who throws the oppositions into
sharp relief, could regard ancient morality
not only as insufficient but as a perversion
(virtutes veterum splendida vitia).

Hence the life which arises on this ethico-
religious basis is of a strictly supernatural

2U THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

character. Here the spiritual life has abso-
lutely no need of being supplemented by
nature, but it contains its task as well as its
power within itself. But the sensible is not
therefore declared to be bad and treated as an
enemy. Where this has taken place within
Christianity, it is in contradiction to its funda-
mental tendency. For on this point Christi-
anity is clearly and consciously at variance with
the later ages of antiquity : to it the decisive
opposition is not that between the sensible
and the supersensible, but that between good
and evil. The root of evil is not a deficiency
in spiritual capacity, but moral guilt. But the
sensible remains a subordinate sphere, which
has to be completely subservient to the ends
of the spirit: it possesses value not in itself
but through the part of the higher order to
which it gives expression, or through what it
accomplishes for the higher order. Hence it
can never form the sole domain of human
endeavours, but always points beyond itself,
and, with all its palpability, as far as the soul

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 215

of man is concerned it remains an external
world.

We shall see what dangers and complications
are produced by the unfolding of this system
of life in the sphere of humanity and under
special historical conditions. At the same
time we shall have to examine whether, from
the very beginning, the whole is not burdened
with difficult problems. But before we discuss
these questions we must fully recognize the
primary phenomenon of the spiritual life, which
here unfolds itself. The spiritual life here
discovers in itself immeasurable depths, sharp
contrasts, mighty tasks. If it formerly ranked
as of incontestable worth throughout its whole
existence, there now arises in it an inner
division, a cleavage, the overcoming of which
becomes the task of tasks. Man's own nature
thus becomes his chief problem, and this means
that his life is withdrawn from external
activities and principally occupied with itself.
The purely inward life thus gains independence
and a completely satisfying content. At the

216

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

same time a change takes place in the value
put upon action in that it does not need any
external results to make it complete, but finds
that its main business lies in the purely inward
life. Then only does the internal disposition
cease to be a dead accompaniment and become
an active process ; thus men are freed from
the bondage which may come not only from
external relations but from the unalterableness
of the nature of the soul. A life which is based
upon freedom of action rises above all merely
natural processes ; a struggle commences
between freedom and fate. The independence
which is thus won not only seeks to make man
master of his own nature, but it prevents him
from accepting his sense - existence as an
assigned destiny and from yielding to it with-
out a struggle. It calls upon him to master
the life of the senses, and insists on shaping it
conformably to the ends of the spirit. The
importance of this is shown in particular by
the beginnings of Christianity. For in taking
up with courage and confidence the struggle

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 217

against a weak sensuousness pervading all the
relations of life, it strengthened and consoli-
dated men against the disintegration which
threatened to carry all before it, and, by in-
creasing their self-confidence, prepared the way
for a movement of ascent.

In the actual world of history these trans-
formations, these deepening and liberating
movements, have always produced only inade-
quate results : in the consciousness of mankind
they are liable to be temporarily obscured and
forgotten. But they cannot be simply can-
celled ; they have produced so much change
in life on its inner side that any further move-
ment of humanity must come to terms with
them. It is impossible for man to resume
without question the earlier naive relations in
which he stood to his environment and his own
nature, and to find full satisfaction in their
development. Where the working-out in
detail of this ethico-religious system of life
provokes to contradiction, it often happens
that the fundamental thought of the deepen-

218 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ing and ethical awakening of life maintains its
position all the more strongly. Where the
answers no longer receive assent the questions
remain. They, too, are forces which drive life
in a definite direction and give it a specific
character. Hence the new systematization of
life which we owe to Christianity not only
cannot be erased from history but remains one
of its leading features : in fact, as revealing a
depth which controls all the rest of life, it is
above all the changes of history. It continues
to work openly or in secret throughout the
ages, and this proves that it belongs to that
timeless present which is the subject of our
investigation.

But all the truth and greatness of Chris-
tianity have not prevented it from being a
subject of constant strife. It is not only from
outside that it has continually experienced the
severest attacks, unless these have been sup-
pressed with an iron hand, but it has been
torn with internal dissensions which have
extended beyond the domain of conceptions

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 219

to the shaping of life. Everything indicates
that the main tendency, when it is worked out
in detail, contains a complication ; we shall
see that it is just the relation between the
inner and the outer worlds which is here in
question. Christianity stands for a new world,
as opposed to that which immediately surrounds
men, and it cannot give up either of these
worlds ; a " monistic " Christianity is an
absurdity which can only please a confused
thinker. But to maintain the existence of
two worlds still leaves it an open question
how they are related in detail to each other :
the particular point is, how the world, which
is on the one hand transcendent and superior
to man, can become his own, and come into
close touch with his soul. It is certainly part
of the fundamental conception of Christianity
to make the supramundane order powerfully
operative in our world as well, but the relations
of one to the other are not completely adjusted.
The supramundane order remains in the first
place a Beyond, which exists alongside our

220 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

world and is bound to lead us away from it
by drawing us to itself. But, at the same
time, instead of creating a present which
transcends time, it remains too much a matter
of mere expectation, a hope to be realized in
the future. This not only leads to the greatest
confusion in particular directions, but it gives
the whole of life a character which is bound to
arouse doubt and opposition. Since the trans-
cendent Spirituality affects us here chiefly as
an order working upon us from the Beyond,
our whole life receives a specifically religious
character, and is thereby driven into a channel
which may satisfy particular periods but which
is too narrow to be permanent. Christianity
was established in an age which was wanting
in vigorous vitality, and was chiefly intent on
gaining a safe harbour of refuge. But it
seemed that this could be found only in
opposition to the confused activity of the
world, in a supernatural order. The sharper
the division became, the more certain men
felt of themselves and the stronger was the

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 221

position of the divine revelation, which came
to us only by a miracle. It would be irrelevant
to treat of the objections raised by later ages,
when vitality was at a higher level, but it is of
course important to consider how the relation
between the inner and the outer worlds had to
suffer through this tendency.

Above all, there arises a sharp opposition
which runs through the whole history of
Christianity, and finds expression particularly
in the shaping of creeds : we allude to the
opposition between an inwardness which with-
draws from the visible world, and an adapta-
tion to this world, with the accompanying
danger of an intrusion of the sensible into the
spiritual. Where the inner life springs from
the relationship to a transcendent Deity, and
finds its chief task in the development of this
relationship, it is easy for anyone to be in-
different to his earthly environment, to face
all injustice in silence, with patience and
resignation, to make no attempt either to
grapple with the irrationality in the world,

222 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

or to raise it to an essentially higher level.
Can we deny that the modern period has
intervened in the general relations of life much
more powerfully and helpfully than Christi-
anity, though the latter dominated for so long
the souls of men ? Who abolished slavery,
who carried through a universal system of
popular education, who has attacked the social
problem on a grand scale ? The inwardness
which we have described, with all its delicacy
of feeling, was too feeble and too aloof from
the world to exercise any power of penetrating
and organizing it. Where spiritual emotion
does not somehow turn into activity it runs a
great risk of becoming an inert brooding over
things, a purely subjective feeling, an empty
mood. It does so, of course, only where the
seriousness of the religious life has faded away,
a pre-eminent example of which is the purely
intellectual Christianity of modern times.
And even where men are willing, they are
often very helpless in dealing with the world :
nor can we deny the further fact that, in the

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 223

life which is ruled by Christianity, the depth of
soul and the tenderness of the fundamental
experience have often been unsuccessful in
preventing great barbarity, and in fact
brutality, of outward action. Or were not
the Inquisition and trials for witchcraft carried
on in the name of Christianity ? There is thus
a dualism of life, which cannot be permanently
endured.

But in Christianity itself there was vigorous
opposition to the movement towards an in-
wardness superior to the world. This move-
ment would probably have made Christianity
a religion of mere individuals, if from the
beginning its efforts had not been directed
towards establishing a kingdom of the new
life, and helping the whole of mankind. Even
on the ground of history nothing distinguishes
it more from other religions than the forma-
tion of a church that is definitely marked off,
and claims to embrace the whole of humanity.
But this enterprise could not be carried out
without taking into consideration the general

224 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

situation, and also the opinions and interests
of men. If now this situation was accepted as
essentially unalterable, it was naturally im-
possible to avoid accommodation to it in
many ways, and the consequent intrusion of
sensible elements into the world of religion.
It is thus emphatically the case not so much
that a new world is formed as that the old
world and its modes of thought are trans-
ferred to the domain of religion. How sen-
suous are the ideas of a God who is provoked
to anger by sin, and must be appeased by
some sort of atonement ! How sensuous are
the ideas of reward and punishment, of pur-
gatory, of heaven and hell, and the whole body
of eschatological doctrine ! In addition, the
spiritual exhaustion at the beginning of Chris-
tianity, which has been often alluded to, was
bound to strengthen the sensuous element.
Men wished to be perfectly sure, at any cost
and without any risk to themselves, of the full
reality of the spiritual, and so they insisted on
a sensuous embodiment in order to be absol-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 225

utely certain of it. Hence they demanded
facts which appealed to their senses, over-
powering impressions, visible pledges, such as
we find in the clearest form in the conception
of the sacrament. For the sensible is here
much more than a mere means and instru-
ment ; it belongs to the essence of the matter,
and the communication of divine powers is so
closely bound up with it that a man's own
disposition in the matter may easily become
a secondary consideration (sacramenta non
solum significant, sed causant gratiam). There
is the closest connection between this and the
fact that, the more the consciousness of his
own weakness makes man look for deliver-
ance solely to supernatural grace, the more
religious it may appear to deny him, as far as
possible, all activity of his own, and to repre-
sent the new life merely as " streaming into "
him as into a passive vessel. Hence the
inclination spreads to make sure of spiritual
processes by binding them to sensible forms,

to give to outward and tangible performances

226 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

a value which is in direct contradiction to the
efforts of Christianity after inwardness. The
final result is a materialising of the spiritual
life, which leads at the same time to a
suppression of all free movement.

A similar problem also appears both in the
conception of the Church and in its activity.
This activity is in the interests of the kingdom
of God ; its object is to subordinate all external
processes to the ends of the inner world. But
it cannot meet with any success without com-
ing to terms with the world as it is, and
making use of the means which it provides.
The result is that it falls under the influence
of this world, and may be overborne by it to
such an extent that the main aim is completely
obscured.

We thus see the opposition in its fullest
development: we have on the one side an
inwardness withdrawn from the world, and,
on the other, the inner overborne by the outer.
Though there are constant endeavours within
Christianity to effect some sort of reconcilia-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 227

tion, the confusion lies too far back to permit
of anything but a tolerable compromise being
attained. Do we not see in Christianity, with
particular clearness at the present day, the op-
position between a freely ranging subjectivity
and a sense-bound organization ?

The main trend of modern life puts the
problem of the outer and the inner worlds in
a very different light. The stream of life is
once more directed upon the world, but now
the main point is not merely to contemplate it
but to lay hold of it vigorously, to get full
possession and enjoyment of it. The inward-
ness that has been won is not by any means
given up in principle, but is now expected to
communicate itself to the whole of reality,
and in this communication to increase its own
power and joyousness. We saw how the main
task of modern times lies in the enhancement
of life, and how this enhancement does not
serve an end beyond itself, but itself becomes
more and more its own completely satisfying
goal. But as the carrying out of this process

228 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

makes it necessary that diversity should be
reduced to unity and the oppositions should
show a tendency towards reconciliation, the
inner and the outer worlds cannot remain
separate; the life of the whole continually
directs them towards one another ; the one can
develop its power and reach its highest level
only in contact with the other. Although they
may thus form different starting-points, they
approach one another and become more and
more closely interwoven, and the advance of
the process of life may here be regarded as
a progressive overcoming of the opposition.
The supersensible strives to unite with the
sensible in order to win its full power in the
movement of the latter. Thus we see that all
the ideas and principles which have emerged
in modern times are filled with a fiercer long-
ing to master the sensible world and penetrate
to its furthest ramifications. Only by doing
so do they seem to step from the realm of
shadows into clear and full reality, and at the
same time demonstrate their truth. Hence

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 229

the time for a timid severance from the
sensible is now past, nor can the latter any
longer be despised. From the other side,
modern life and work enable the sensible to
appropriate in an increasing degree the features
of the spiritual, and they bring it nearer and
nearer to the spiritual. Nature renounces its
old palpability ; it no longer lies before us as
a realm of impenetrable matter, but is trans-
formed into a web of forces and relations,
held together by a causal order accessible to
thought. In this system of life, whose funda-
mental principles are the increase of power
and constant progress, material goods also
appear in a higher light than at earlier
periods, when their pursuit was thought to
be the outcome of a lower way of thinking.
For now they become indispensable means to
the development of human power and the
overcoming of obstacles : it is not so much
sensuous enjoyment as the increase of power,
the mastery over things — and thus something
supersensuous — which makes them valuable.

230 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

If one thus grows by means of the other, it
seems that there is only a single world and a
single life encompassing man, and the tendency
towards union which we have described seems
completely to reconcile idealism and natural-
ism. Thus the division which opened in front
of Christianity seems to be happily overcome.

The systematization of activity into work,
in which the modern period considerably sur-
passes earlier epochs, was of great significance
for this result. For the modern period has
made vigorous attempts to free human action
from all subjectivity, and to connect it closely
with its objects : it forms great complexes of
work, recognizes in them their peculiar laws
and motives, and lets these latter control
human action. While man thus identifies
himself with the special necessities of things,
the latter come incomparably nearer to him
and grow to be parts of his own nature. In
the world of human work the inner and the
outer unite, in the same way as force and its
object, to form a single whole. Thus the

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 231

progress of work is at the same time the
establishment of man in an undivided world:
it means that the idea of unity has made a
further advance.

This consciousness of belonging to a single
world dominates the convictions of the modern
man, and gives him an assured sense of life.
But the greater the pride and joy which are
manifested in the striving after unity, the
greater must be the resultant confusion, if,
in the details of the systematization within
modern life itself, different, and indeed con-
trary, life-currents are formed, which that life
cannot bring together with the means at its
disposal ; if work, though it strains its powers
to the utmost, cannot fulfil a requirement
which is emotionally of the utmost urgency.
This comes about as follows. The chief in-
strument for carrying out this effort has been
found by modern life in science, science of the
analytical and exact character which has been
developed precisely in modern times. It was
of such scientific knowledge that it could first

232 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

be truly said, knowledge is power. But
science could not clearly and distinctly grasp
either psychical life or nature without giving
them an independence of one another and
recognizing that each possessed a unique
nature of its own. This meant a complete
breach with the former method, which found
no difficulty in a mingling of both realms.
Though from the ethical and religious point
of view the inner was raised above the outer,
the earlier scientific conception of the soul was
overladen with many sensuous images. No
difficulty was felt in representing sensuous
operations, impressions, influences as entering
immediately into the soul, nor, on the other
hand, in representing volitions as extending
into the outer world and altering its condition.
In addition, the soul was defined not so much
by any positive attribute as by its contrast
with the sensible, and hence it easily came to
be popularly conceived as something sensible,
though of a refined and gaseous nature. On
the other hand, nature seemed to be controlled

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 233

by psychical forces, guided by ends, moved
by impulses and inclinations ; it might be
regarded as forming a living whole and exer-
cising creative power from within. A con-
fusion like this, which involved the constant
interpenetration of the two series, hindered all
precise explanation, and hence the desire for
such explanation drove men to separate com-
pletely one realm from the other, and at
the same time to demand a psychological
explanation of everything psychical and a
physical explanation of everything natural.
This separation was ably and vigorously
carried out by the leading spirits of the
Enlightenment : as they conceived the essen-
tial characteristic of the soul to be conscious-
ness and thought, and that of the material
world to be extension in space, the two were
regarded as irreconcilably disparate. Here a
realm of souls with their indivisibility, there a
realm of infinitely divisible masses with their
motions. As regards their relations, the two
realms could no longer be understood as

234 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

communicating with one another. According
to the new conception, a stimulus comes from
one side and releases on the other some sort
of activity : in its working, however, each
realm kept to itself and was closed against
every interference from without.

But these movements did not by any means
remain confined to the realm of mere theory :
they broke forth and became mighty forces
striving to dominate the whole of life, and
thus inevitably came into the sharpest col-
lision with one another. In thought the
thinking subject begins to feel himself the
creator of a world. For when thought, as a
productive faculty, develops an inexhaustible
diversity out of itself — mathematics affords
the clearest example — it does not thereby lose
itself in things ; it preserves an unassailable
superiority; from all its work of production
it always returns again to itself, and thereby
proves the complete independence of the
human spirit. Just as the thinking subject
seems to be the Archimedean point which

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 235

affords a fixed position in face of the chaos of
phenomena, the next task is to include the
whole of reality in the process which so arises.
Thought now becomes both the motive force
and the measure of all things : by vigorous
self-concentration it discovers in itself an
original endowment of eternal truths, then
transforms these into postulates, and applies
them to the existing condition of things.
What contradicts these truths cannot stand ;
what corresponds to them will be illuminated
and raised to a much higher level. An
activity of this kind not only works on things
from the outside, but penetrates into them
and seeks to make out of them something
quite different from what they appear to our
immediate impressions. For everything sen-
sible here becomes a mere appearance, an
expression and instrument of a content of
thought : all reality seems to be reduced to
thought-elements, and we seem to promote its
ultimate truth when we raise it to the realm
of thoughts and ideas. On this view the

286 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

sensible can only be regarded as a residue on
which the transforming work of thought has
not yet been fully successful, but it is not
granted an independent existence as opposed
to thought.

The essential attributes of the work of
thought thus become the ruling characteristics
of the whole of civilized life. The universal
and timeless truth ascertained by this work
possesses an unassailable superiority both over
what the sensible world exhibits and over
what has been made of man by particular
historical experiences. Man's greatness and
worth do not lie in what he is as a natural
being, nor in what he is as belonging to a
particular nation or a particular religion, but
in what he is as a reasonable being. The
development of his rational nature produces
a culture which is rational and universal
as contrasted with a culture dependent on
history ; in particular it rejects all sensation-
alism and becomes an intellectual culture ;
and it shows vigour and tenacity in making

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 237

its way in all directions. Man now appears
as, above all, a being whose essence is pure
thought, as a personality and an individuality,
and from this point of view he must make
further claims on himself and on life. Accord-
ingly an attempt is made, starting from the
reason immanent in man, to shape the indi-
vidual departments of life, such as religion and
morality, politics and education, and these
thus undergo a complete transformation.
Finally, all variety tends towards an all-
embracing realm of thought, and an inner life
is developed which, with its incessant activity,
is much better protected against an irruption
of sensible elements than the more passive and
emotional inwardness of the middle ages.
The guidance of this intellectual culture
belongs incontestably to philosophy. For
centuries great thinkers have emphatically
contested the existence of an independent
sensible world, and have sought to transpose
the whole of reality into a web of thought.
This intellectualistic effort found its culminat-

238 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ing point in the system of Hegel, which not
only makes the laws of thought control the
whole of reality, but makes the movement
of thought, which advances by means of
contradictions, its sole content.

But nature, too, exhibits a life of its own,
which is no less intense, and which struggles
for the possession of the world. Just as
psychical life, after the removal of the tradi-
tional intermingling of psychical and physical,
found in thought a world-forming creative
activity, so, after the expulsion of the
psychical elements, nature is co-ordinated
into a stricter unity, and shows that, when it
is understood in this way, it is capable of
incomparably greater services. Modern in-
vestigation, using the exact methods of
mechanics, probes nature to the smallest
elements and forces, and thus reveals to us a
new depth of reality. By the aid of these
elements it illuminates the existing state of
things in the most thorough-going manner,
and not only discovers much more movement

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 239

in nature, and, by following it up, is able to
recreate reality, but also finds a way to enlist
the forces of nature in the service of man, and
thereby enormously enhance his life. Modern
natural science is the starting-point of modern
technical processes, which have not only led
to an enormous advance in details, but have in
general put man in a different relation to
reality. For his ability henceforth to grapple
boldly with all the irrationality of existence,
and to treat all limitations as only temporary,
must give him a proud self-reliance and instil
an inner joyousness into his life. But while
the shaping of existence by the technical
applications of science shows that the outer
is everywhere capable of a strong influence on
the inner, and while it is easy for the latter to
appear as a mere appendage of the former, the
progress of science produces effects tending in
the same direction. The latter, especially
when it assumes the form of a doctrine of
evolution and makes even organic forms
subject to change and growth, may look

240 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

upon all psychical life as a mere product of
the process of nature, and may regard its task
as consisting only in what it does for the ad-
vancement of this natural process. Psychical
life loses more and more the independence
which was formerly assigned to it ; even in
details its activity seems to be determined
by physical processes. Another factor which
increases the importance of the visible world
is the emergence and predominance of
economic problems in modern society. Not
only much that was formerly in a state of
disintegration thus gains coherence for the
first time and increases its influence, but also
the particular systematization of modern work
produces many new problems, and gives them
a leading position in human life. From this
point of view the management of life on its
material side seems to be the main thing in
human existence, and the struggle connected
with it is the heart of the work that has been
done throughout history. The manner in
which this problem has been solved seems

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 241

to give the different epochs their peculiar
character. If intellectualism regarded ideas
as the motive forces of social and historical
solidarity, the pendulum has now swung to
the opposite extreme, and the place of ideas
has been taken by material interests.

A realistic culture, such as has never existed
before, arises out of the combination of these
different movements and their annexation of
the whole of life. For although the idealistic
schemes of life never failed to meet with con-
tradiction and the counteracting influence of
realistic modes of thought, it was always
rather a matter confined to individual schemes,
and did not extend beyond a critical and
defensive attitude to a positive construction
dealing with life as a whole. The occurrence
of this in the modern period alters the situa-
tion in essential particulars. For now for the
first time naturalism may hope to satisfy the
spiritual as well as the material needs of
humanity, and meet idealism on equal terms.

The struggle thus enters on a new phase : it

242 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

goes more than ever from whole to whole,
and, when clearly realized, is bound to throw
the whole of life into frightful unrest and
confusion. Philosophy has again played the
largest part in raising the matter to the level
at which it can deal with life as a whole and
fundamental principles. Only philosophy will
not now appear as untrammelled thought,
prescribing to things the course they should
pursue, but will mould itself upon the data
of experience with the greatest possible
fidelity, and will find its chief work in co-
ordinating, or, to use Comte's expression,
" systematizing " the co-existences of ex-
perience. Comte, with his Positivism, may
in general be regarded as the realistic counter-
part of Hegel: the opposition, and at the
same time the close relationship between the
two tendencies, comes out with particular
clearness in the life-work of these two men.

There is no doubt that the elaboration and
the collision of the two movements takes
place within the sphere of a common effort.

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 243

Both in the one and in the other there is a
struggle to conquer the world, a thirst for
reality, an increased sense of power, a trans-
lation of the vital impulse into objective
work, a denial of all separation between the
two worlds, a depreciation of the ethical and •
religious inner life of the soul, which had been
developed in Christianity, but which now
appears too insipid and feeble. If, now, these
demands are satisfied in two opposite ways ;
if, on the one hand, the inner world does not,
and cannot, tolerate anything outward, nor
the outer world anything inward, if the crav-
ing for unity drives each of the life-currents
to insist on its own exclusiveness, then no
agreement between them is possible, and
the movement of modern times is bound to
be transformed into an incessant struggle :
this is what has actually occurred.

At first the intellectual culture had the
better of the struggle, not only because of
the greatness of its cosmic philosophy and
the penetrating power of its work, but also

244 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

because it seemed more capable of coming to
an understanding with the traditional forms
of idealism, and of making use of their forces.
But while idealism thus found a support in
history, naturalism was favoured by the
immediate impressions of the real world.
These impressions have constantly increased
in strength, and have tended more and more
to produce the conviction that the shaping
of life from within is an audacious and indeed
unsuccessful venture. But what has been
most in favour of naturalism is the progressive
spread of culture : an increasing number of
men take an interest in, and in fact help
to decide, ultimate questions, who are little
affected by history and know hardly anything
of the experiences which it records, and who
therefore decide the great problems well or
ill according to the immediate impressions
of the present. And who can deny that
our own age shows no powerful and strongly
marked movement of an idealistic character ?
In the older forms of idealism we feel that

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 245

much is obsolete, and yet we are unable to
draw the boundary line between what is
obsolete and what is of permanent validity.
Our age is by no means wanting in idealistic
movements, but they are not co-ordinated
into a whole, and therefore cannot inspire
mankind to enthusiasm and sacrifice. On the
other side stands naturalism with its rounded-
off system, its appeal to the senses, its easily
understood aims : is it to be wondered at if
the main tendency of the age regards its
triumph as already settled ? The question
is whether the judgment of the age has come
to a decision which is finally valid, and whether
philosophy can be content to acquiesce in it.

That philosophy cannot be content to do so
is sufficiently proved by our survey of history.
For however large a part of our spiritual
achievements history showed to be problem-
atic and transitory, yet it revealed powers and
depths of life which belong to its essence and
which may, of course, be denied by human
opinion and inclination, but cannot be abol-

246 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ished. The essential nature which life thus
revealed gives us something to take hold of,
and contains demands which must be satisfied
if life is to attain anything more than a super-
ficial and momentary satisfaction. Here,
however, lies the rock on which naturalism
makes shipwreck, here is the basis for the
assertion that it will not be able to retain a
permanent hold on humanity. That naturalism
is in many respects incomplete, that it sets
aside many problems as insoluble, cannot in
the least degree be reckoned to its disadvantage
or reproach, for this is a defect from which all
systematizations of life have to suffer. It is
a greater drawback that its development in-
volves it in many contradictions, but such
contradictions may be quietly ignored or
simply endured. But the fatal thing is that it
does not meet the claims which life, in accord-
ance with its nature as unfolded by the move-
ment of history, is bound to make, and in
fact puts itself in direct opposition to the
main tendency of these claims. However

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 247

much fluctuation, and even at times retro-
gression, the movement of history may exhibit,
there can be no doubt that it has elaborated
inner life to a continually increasing extent as
opposed to the outer world, and has made this
inner life continually more independent. A
kind of reversal has been continually in pro-
gress by the transference to an ever greater
extent of the centre of gravity from the outer
to the inner. Naturalism itself, as a system of
thought and a totality of life, bears witness to
this superiority of the inner, for without this
superiority the diversity of things could never
have been co-ordinated, worked up, and ex-
perienced as a whole. But this inwardness,
which has become independent, now claims
full employment and satisfaction ; if this claim
is refused, all the rich diversity of inflowing
impressions cannot prevent an emptiness, and
an emptiness which in the end is bound to be
felt. Naturalism, however, with its building
up from the outside, offers no shred of sub-
stitute for this inwardness, but transforms the

248 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

whole of life into a sum of outward achieve-
ments. It is thus inevitable that it should be
opposed by the desire of man for happiness, a
desire which does not proceed from petty
selfishness but from the inner necessity of our
nature, from the craving after some meaning
in our life and efforts.

If this destructive action of naturalism is
not fully realized, it is owing to the fact that
it usually supplements its deficiencies secretly
by means of a stock of thoughts which belong
to the world of idealism. Thus it is accus-
tomed to hold fast to an ethical estimate of
action ; in practical life it usually retains
without hesitation its hold on such things as
duty and honour, justice and humanity, though
in the world built by its own conceptions there
is not the smallest place for them, and though
from this point of view they must appear no
less incredible than the crassest legends and
miracles. But the more the consequences of
naturalism are developed, the more intolerable
must it find this dualism, the more inclined

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 249

will it be to reject these supplements as im-
possible, and the more plainly must its limits
be seen and likewise its inability to guide life.
Thus its own outer victory must destroy it
inwardly : it is wrecked not on its contradiction
of any traditions and institutions — no system
of thought need fear such contradiction — but
on its conflict with the inmost essence of •
human life, which in the end will ever prevail
in spite of all aberrations of individuals and
epochs.

But in a question like this the negation of
one possibility does not alone involve, as in
logic or mathematics, the victory of the other,
but life may quite well remain in suspense
between the two possibilities. Although we
may be ever so certain that to transform life
into mere relations and achievements directed
towards the outer world is to destroy it spiritu-
ally, although the inability of naturalism to
give a meaning and value to our existence
may be perfectly clear, yet a life in the sense

250 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of idealism, an inner world which should co-or-
dinate our efforts and direct them along one
main line, is not yet won. We feel, rather,
that our position is insecure and unsteady as
soon as we seek a path from the general idea
to the precise systematization. The work of
the past, to whose strong influence we are all
wittingly or unwittingly subject, presents us
with three different ways of shaping life from

* within: the artistic method of antiquity, the
- ethico-religious method of Christianity, and

* the dynamic-intellectual method of modern
times. Each of these, in its day, offered itself
as the only one, or at any rate the supreme
one. Now we find them all pressing upon us
at once, while our vision has been made much
too acute by historical and critical modes of
thought for us to be blind to their great differ-
ences and glaring contrasts. But if it is
impossible simply to combine them, each one

* of them displays truths that must not be lost,
and thus successfully resists its own absolute
negation. Indeed, in the midst of their strife,

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 251

they seem incapable of dispensing with each
other's help : each contradicts the other and at •
the same time demands it.

If we abandon the artistic idealism of anti-
quity, with its power of shaping and ennobling
life, it will be easy for our life in the midst of
all its zealous activity to sink into a state of
formlessness, uncouthness, and barbarism ; so
we obviously must preserve here a funda-
mental phenomenon of life. But, at the same
time, not only the deep obscurity of the world
and the severe conflicts in human life revealed
by Christianity, but also the immeasurable
capacity for increase which the modern period
has proved to belong to human powers, forbids
us to recognize as final a scheme of life so cir-
cumscribed and so instinct with the harmony
of existence as that presented by the highest
efforts of Greek creative activity. The depth
of soul and the inner movement of life, the
pervading influence of a world-embracing love, 1
and the great seriousness attaching to moral '
decisions, which are characteristic features of

252 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Christianity, cannot be surrendered or even
minimized without impoverishing and lower-
ing the level of life. But at the same time the
increased psychical activity of the individual,
I as well as the greater breadth and freedom of
• life which we owe to the modern period, not
only make the historical form of Christianity
too narrow and too anthropomorphic for us,
but also give rise to the strongest doubts as to
the rights of a specifically religious system of
life, which directs man's thoughts and efforts
. predominantly to an existence yet to come,
and makes him live more for a better future
than for the present. The particular character
of the modern period, with its breadth and
universality, its rousing work of thought, its
increase of human capacity, its liberation of
men's minds, may be ever so highly estimated,
but we must not overlook the fact that not
only were these characteristics bound to
necessitate a constant supplementing of the
older schemes of life, but also that their own
development, with its call upon all our powers

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 253

and its awakening of unlimited claims, has
conjured up enormous complications. In par-
ticular its intellectualism, for all its restless
external activity, remains inwardly confined
within rigid limits. The faith in reason and
progress, with which the modern period began,
has more and more faded away under the influ-
ence of these experiences : it no longer controls
men's deepest convictions even where it still
persists as an outward confession.

Hence at first sight everything is here in a
confused whirl, conflicting movements inter-
sect, and fill man with opposite emotions.
Here he is to think highly, and there lowly,
of himself ; here with defiant self-assurance he
is to subject the world to himself, there he is
humbly to subordinate himself to it ; here his
activities and aspirations are restlessly directed
towards externals, there he takes refuge in the
still depths of his inner consciousness. How
can a life that is full of so many contradictions
co-ordinate its activities into one main direc-
tion, how can it make its assertion of the

254 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

existence of an independent inner world con-
vincing, and bring it home to the mind ? As
the powers of life wear one another down, the
inner world will more and more fade into a
realm of shadows, and there will remain only
an unstable subjectivity which yields to every
stimulus. Such a subjectivity may be strong
enough to keep naturalism at a distance ; but
it is far too weak to unfold a world of its own,
to bring man to a condition of inner unity
and mankind to a condition of inner solidarity,
to combine all the forces of life into one great
stream and thus give them security. W e all
know how at the present day such a lawless
and unreal subjectivity comes forward as a
true inwardness and usurps its rights.

But how can we escape from this precarious
and, in the end, intolerable position ? Perhaps
we shall be led, if not to the goal, at least
some distance along the road we are seeking,
by the perception that all the older kinds of
idealism rest on a presupposition, for which they
do not seek any further foundation, but which

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 255

is not so self-evident as it professes to be.
Everywhere, that is to say, certain develop-
ments and activities of the spiritual life are in
question : a moulding activity, or the over-
coming of an inner contradiction, or the
increase of power without limit. That spiritual
life exists is everywhere assumed, and no one
troubles any more about it. Must not this
presupposition be transformed into a problem
by all the confusions and doubts which we
feel so strongly at the present day ? and, if we
start with this problem, should not new light
be cast upon life ? Science has been often
advanced by the fact that what earlier times
regarded as settled and self-evident has later
become transformed into a difficult problem.
Perhaps it is the same in life ; perhaps if we
start further back we may have a right to hope
for a more fertile development in the later
stages.

We have dealt at length with the problem
of spiritual life in various publications, and
especially in the Grundlinien einer neuen

256

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Lebensanschauung, and we must refer to
these works for all details. But it is clear,
without going more closely into the question,
that in spiritual life we have to do, not with
a mere addition to a life already existent, but

• with an essentially new life. Psychical life,
which otherwise is merely subservient to, or

' accompanies, the process of nature, gains,
when human life is at its highest — not when
it only reaches the average — an independence
and content of its own. It is something so
new and so peculiar that it can be understood
only as a new stage of reality, as the emer-
gence of a depth of the world which was
formerly hidden. For although this new life
may appear only in the human sphere, its
claim to form a new domain of existence as
opposed to nature, and to introduce new
realities and goods and assert them in opposi-
tion to those which reign in the natural order,
would be absurd and hopeless from the start
if it were a life which belonged to mere man
and were ultimately bound up with the con-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 257

ditions of his existence. Its cosmic ambition
would be an audacious folly were it not that
it had a cosmic life behind it by whose power 1
it is driven forward.

That with the upgrowth of spiritual life
man is raised into a new world and participates
in the totality of its life, is something of which
we can gain no assurance by any flight of
speculation : conviction can come only from
the fact that a life is developed which accom-
plishes the deliverance of man from the merely
human, and, in doing so, by no means falls
into the void. But such a development does
appear in point of fact ; indeed, it exhibits itself
as the height of spiritual work both in the
macrocosm and in the microcosm. What is
genuine and essential in religion is not a
petting and pampering of the mere man with
his craving for happiness ; it is a removal of
him into infinity, eternity, perfection ; it is the *
winning of a new, wider, and purer existence
from a new world. Real morality does not

consist in man's obeying commandments im-

258 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

posed upon him and playing the part of the
honest citizen, but it demands a new world, a
kingdom of justice and love, a new starting-
point for life. Real knowledge is not an
adjustment and accumulation of impressions,
starting from man and directed towards
human ends, but it is a penetration into the
real nature of things and an inner expansion
through participation in a wider life. Nor is
that genuine art which ministers to the
enjoyment or the interests of mere man, but
only that which brings him into an inner
relation to his surroundings and at the same
time makes something different out of him.

Anyone who takes a general survey of all
these points will feel no doubt that in the
human sphere a new kind of reality emerges,
a movement of the universe is set in motion.
However far this new element may in appear-
ance retreat into the background, in it alone
lies all the meaning and value of human life,
and so far it has succeeded in making its
influence sufficiently felt to render impossible

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 259

a quiet acquiescence in the existing condition
of things. From the standpoint of the new
life this condition must appear as a confused
medley of nature and spirit; in fact, it will
seem to be a difficult and intolerable contra-
diction in that the spiritual, with all the
superiority of its nature, is accustomed in our
sphere to play the part of a mere accessory to
nature, and, so far as it is developed at all, is
drawn into the service of the merely human.
In reality, the average culture treats the
spiritual as a secondary matter and a mere
means towards human well-being, but in words
it proclaims that the spiritual is the main
thing and a complete end in itself. Hence
this culture acquires a character of incomplete-
ness and falsity, and it is impossible for it
to carry the spiritual life beyond individual
phenomena to a stable and coherent system,
and from vague outlines to a strongly marked
form. Life is here wanting in real independ-
ence, and thus does not get beyond a half-life
or phantom life.

260

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

Hut if a desire for real and genuine life now
awakens — and the spirituality indwelling in
man will always impel him in spite of all
contradiction to seek such a life — it becomes
clear that a movement in this direction cannot
come from the chaos we have described, but
demands an elevation above this, the winning
of an independent standpoint, the development
of a spirituality superior to this average routine.
Only after the movement is firmly established
can the spirituality which is latent in this
average be thrown into relief, purified, and
turned to account for the further development
of the whole.

Endeavours of this kind may give rise to an
idealism which is universal in its nature, because
it makes it its task to appropriate not this or
that point in the spiritual, but the spiritual
itself. But at the same time this idealism, in
its insistence on the reality of the spiritual
life and on liberation from the merely human,
prescribes a specific aim, which is able to
co-ordinate all the diversity of these endeavours

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 261

and set them in due proportions. From this
point of view the whole condition of culture
will have to be submitted to an examination
to ascertain how much of it is essentially y
spiritual in its nature and what belongs to

the bustle of merely human activities. The
individual systems of life of an idealistic nature
must be taken up into this movement, into
this struggle for independence of life and for
the opening-up of a basal depth of reality.
This universal idealism has to prove its right
above all by showing that it is able to appreci-
ate all these developments of life, to separate
their permanent content, with its primary -
features, from their historical form, to confirm .
them in their own truth and provide against .
their lapse into the pettily human.

This system of life, which rests on an
independent and essential inwardness, has
* above all an ethical character. And this is
principally because, with this conviction, life
does not run its course in quiet development,
but contains in itself the necessity of a con-

262 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

version from appearance to reality, and there-

• fore of a complete reversal ; and this reversal,
with its demand for a rise to independence,
cannot possibly be a mere process occurring in

/ man but must be his own act and deliberate
choice. But at the same time this system
leaves no doubt that the act we have described
does not depend on the will and pleasure of the
mere man, but that the action of each unit
reaches back into the totality of the world and

• thereby involves a great responsibility. It is
only a morality on such a basis which will as
a general rule introduce life to its own height
and truth ; it will not make it petty and con-
strained, but greater, freer, and more stable,
for it is incomparably more than a mere
regulation of social life, accompanied as this
latter is by reciprocal pressure and the danger
of a self-complacent Pharisaism.

Religion also belongs essentially to the life
which it is here sought to attain. If the
independent spiritual life with its essential
inwardness stands in sharp contrast to the

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 263

average condition of humanity, and cannot
possibly spring from this condition, then it
must be understood and recognized as the
revelation of a new world. Therefore, all
work for the inner elevation of man, all
genuine spiritual culture, contains, although
in a latent form, and even in direct opposition
to the consciousness of those concerned, an
acknowledgment of such a superior world
and of its living presence in the human sphere.
But the religious character of life attains a
clearly elaborated form whenever the constraint
and the disfigurement, to which spiritual life
is subject in the human sphere, are clearly
realized, but at the same time the maintenance
and further deepening of spiritual life is regarded
as a fresh manifestation of this superior world.
A religion which is thus grounded in the
whole of the spiritual life cannot strengthen
the merely human element in man, with its
vulgar greed for happiness ; it cannot drive
his life into that which is petty and narrow,
but, rather, with the revelation of infinite life

264 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

it will free him from all paltry punctiliousness,
and by giving him a share in the cosmic battle

• will lend him dignity and superiority to the
world. On this view, too, the divine need not
come to man from without, since it manifests

• itself sufficiently in the very process of life by
the opening up of a new depth. At the same
time thought and feeling will be directed not
so much towards the Beyond and the future
as towards a present which transcends time.
It is then possible to bring a counteracting

v influence to bear with good results upon the
opposition between, on the one hand, an in-
■ wardness that is withdrawn from the world
and is indifferent or even hostile to sensible
existence, and, on the other, the defeat of a
too passively conceived spiritual by a sensible
that is surreptitiously introduced.

Further, without the creative activity of art
there can be no successful construction of an
independent spiritual world in the human
sphere, for this construction involves the
severance of the subject from the confused

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 265

initial situation and a creative effort in contra- x
distinction to it. Would not a movement of
this kind fall into the void unless imagination
went on in advance, giving form to the invis-
ible and keeping it constantly present with
insistent, rousing, and stimulating force ? The
importance of this is most clearly shown by
the historical religions with their impressive
pictures of new worlds, their pictures of the •
Kingdom of God and the last judgment, of
the future heaven and earth, or else of the
endless succession of worlds — pictures which
sometimes inspired men with deep longing
and sometimes filled them with horror and
dread. But in all the departments of life no
essential progress is possible unless imagination •
thus opens up the way ; and the life of the
individual needs it as well, for it is only when
an ideal picture of itself is constructed and
kept in mind that this life can enter upon an
inner movement of ascent, and thereby rise
superior to the dull routine of every day.
An activity of an artistic nature is also in-

266

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

dispensable for the organization of what this
inner ascent has enabled us to acquire. Such
an activity alone can extend what has been
seen on the heights to the whole breadth of
life, and make what was at the beginning
distant and strange in the end near and
familiar. An artistic activity of this kind,
which is grounded in the connections of
spiritual reality, cannot be isolated in spite
of all its independence of other departments
of life, and cannot lead man on the road to-
wards a feeble and unnerving sestheticism.

Science and the civilization based on it
encompass us so obviously with their beneficial
influences that no doubts of any kind can be
admitted as to their significance. But that
science is indispensable can also be fully
recognized in connection with the very ques-
tion of gaining a new coherent system in life,
a self-centred reality, in opposition both to
the soullessness of a mechanical nature and to
the dark confusion of human existence. For
what force can be found more suitable than

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 267

this, with its objective necessities, to deliver
man from the pettily human and to lead the
struggle against it ; what force more suitable
to raise life from the contingency of the
temporary situation to that which is universal
and above time ; or what force more suitable
than this, with its constructive use of leading
thoughts, to develop inner connections of a
systematic character ? The liberating, ele-
vating, transforming influence of science, its
capacity for building up a world of thought-
elements in opposition to that of sense and
for enforcing objective necessities in opposition
to the caprice of individuals, has been exhibited
by the modern period with particular clearness
and effectiveness. We cannot dispense with
these services where it is a question of rising
to self-activity and independence. But at the
same time we shall be safe from over-estimating
the value of science if we regard it as a
member of a wider system within life, if we
are convinced in particular that it has to gain
its strongest driving force as also its special

268 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

differentiations from the whole of life, and
that, on the other hand, if it is severed from
life, its fundamental nature renders it very
liable to be transformed into a tissue of
abstract formulae. The dangers of an intel-
lect ualistic ordering of life are plainly visible
to us at the present day, and there is no lack
of vigorous opposition. But this opposition
will hardly attain to complete victory without
a return to the roots of science, and the
demonstration of its close connection with the
whole of life. By this close connection it
may appear to lose, but in reality it gains.

The different sides of the life which it is
sought to attain, and the different lines of
approach to it, are very easily brought into
isolation, and indeed into conflict with each
other. Owing to the limitations of human
nature, individuals and periods, according to
their special impressions and experiences, may
give the first place to one or other of these
aspects, and apply all their powers and
faculties to further it : thus the ways divide

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 269

and the violent strife which rages throughout
history becomes quite comprehensible. This
strife will hardly come to an end ; the task
of men can only be in some way or other
to rise superior to it and to counteract the
threatened disintegration of life. But this is
impossible until the different movements allow
themselves to be encompassed by a totality of
life and take the form of endeavours after one ■
and the same goal. For this end, however,
it is essential that our existing spiritual assets
should go through a process of sorting and
sifting, of clarifying and heightening : at
every point it is necessary to look from the
standpoint of the whole and to separate the .
spiritual content from its human trimmings.
But however much toil and labour, strife and
uncertainty, this involves, the general result
can only serve to convince us of the reality
of an inner life and an inner world, of the
fact that man does grow beyond the stage of
merely sensuous life. Just as the individual
becomes certain of an inner task and an

270 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

independent psychical life principally through
contradictions in his own nature, which he
cannot well tolerate, so too for humanity the
strength and intensity of the struggles to shape
the content of life are the surest witness that
it is here in reality a question of seeking and
winning something, that some important pro-
cess is going on in us, that it is not a case of
mere vain pretensions and empty fancies.
The doubts and struggles themselves make us
feel with compelling power that we cannot
give up an inner world, and that it is with
the shaping of this world that our spiritual
contest is principally concerned.

This transference of the inner realities to
their true place behind the superficialities of
the merely human is, further, the surest and
indeed the only means of giving full recogni-
tion to the element of truth in naturalism
without accepting its guidance. Many men,
no doubt, are still extremely reluctant to
recognize fully the historical development of
man from animal beginnings, the slow emer-

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 271

gence of the spiritual in him, the strict sub-
jection of all life to material conditions. Such
a close connection of the spiritual with the
natural is repugnant to them, because they
believe that the spontaneity and independence *
of the spiritual are thereby endangered. But
this danger can threaten only so long as the
fate of the whole spiritual life is held to be -
bound up with human experience. But if
it is once clearly realized that, however the
spiritual may have arisen in man, in its world-
character it cannot possibly have been in the %
last resort produced by him, but that, rather,
we must recognize in the spiritual the appear-
ance of a new stage of the world, then all its
insignificance and subjection in the human
sphere can in no way imperil its independence.
On the contrary, this subjection to conditions,
and indeed this weakness of the spiritual in
the human sphere, can but strengthen the
conviction that its roots strike deeper into •
the ground of reality.

At the same time our action will not be

872 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

able to treat the sensible and natural side of
our existence as a secondary matter. Where
nature ranks as a stage of reality, which
remains even when the spiritual is developed,
the power which this stage contains must be
enlisted in the service of the life-process, in
order that it may not become too weak. Not
by withdrawing from nature, but only by
overcoming, appropriating, and penetrating it
can the spiritual life attain its full height and
strength ; only thus can life be brought from
mere outline to the finished product. That
which has done idealism, with its defence
of an independent inner world, more harm
than any attack from outside is the fact that
it has often been intent upon offering a
picture of reality which should be as smooth
and pleasant as possible, and upon represent-
ing reason as in immediate control of reality.
In doing so it became untrue, and lost its
rousing and deepening force. But if, on the
contrary, we are certain of an independent
spiritual life, we can fully recognize the large

THE OUTER AND THE INNER WORLD 273

amount of obstinate matter-of-fact and blind

irrationality in our world without necessarily

becoming doubtful in any way as to our goals,

or relaxing our efforts to reach them. For

then our world signifies only a particular

kind of being, with which the ultimate decision

does not lie.

Anyone who takes all this into consideration

will feel no doubt that our age has been set

a great task with reference to this cardinal

interest of human life. Some inwardness is

indispensable ; life is in danger of losing its

equilibrium unless there is a central reality

and a lofty goal to aid us in our resistance to

the overwhelming pressure of the external

world. Tradition with all its fulness does

not supply this want ; hence it is important

to gain a new standpoint, to look the problems

straight in the face, and to venture on ways

of our own. If the present crisis has been

occasioned less by the increase in importance

of the outer world than by the uncertainty

in which the inner world has become involved,

274 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

we are impelled to go deeper into ourselves
and to discover new inner co-ordinations.
Only in this way can we become equal to
dealing with the complications, and again
come to realize the meaning and value of
our life. But how can we even strive after
such goals without the help of philosophy?
It is all the more called upon to exert itself
here, because the solution of this problem is
decisive as to its own rights and its own
development. For to surrender the inde-
pendence of an inner world is to surrender
philosophy as well, while the more specific
nature and relations of the inner world dictate
to philosophy also the path which it is to
pursue.

CHAPTER IV

The Problem of Truth

Under human conditions truth and happi-
ness often seem to be irreconcilably at
variance. In his striving after truth man
finds his immediate existence too narrow and
too petty : he desires to escape from this
narrowness, and, passing from the subjective
to the objective/ to participate in the life of
things and the whole of infinity. It seems
that here the greatest of all deliverances is
beckoning to him, the deliverance from all
the troubled passions of self-will and the
contingency attaching to the particular. A
purer, nobler, infinite life here emerges, a life
which even so moderate a thinker as Aristotle
could declare to be more divine than human.

275

276 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

When he is inspired by such high endeavours
man seems obliged to put his own subjective
condition entirely in the background, and
indeed to sacrifice it willingly where the
service of truth demands such a sacrifice. It
is quite otherwise with regard to the desire
for happiness. Here everything which con-
cerns and affects man, which moves him and
drives him to action, is brought into relation
with a central point in which his own life is
co-ordinated into a whole. All his experience
is measured and valued in reference to this ;
from this source love and hate, fire and
passion, stream out to all infinity. That
which can accomplish nothing in these direc-
tions is counted as useless ballast and may
well be left on one side : whatever, on the
contrary, is left, must be strengthened from
this source. Hence in the case of happiness
the subject takes the first place, in the case of
truth the object ; there we have a vigorous
concentration, here an unlimited expansion,
there an expression, here a repression of vital

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 277

emotion. From the point of view of the
desire for happiness the struggle for truth
may easily appear cold and lifeless, while from
the point of view of the latter the former may
appear narrow and selfish.

It must not be thought that this opposition
is entirely external to philosophy, which, how-
ever appealed to, decides the question in
favour of truth and against happiness, but it
extends into philosophy and produces two
fundamentally different types of thought.
There are two eminent examples which bring
this contrast before us in a palpable form,
those of Augustine and Spinoza. A fervent
desire for happiness impels and animates both
the striving and the thought of Augustine :
it is only this desire, only an overpowering " I
will" that leads him through all doubts and
makes him equal to dealing with all obstacles.
That which he apprehends he insists on
mastering and transmuting into his own life,
and even in what is apparently most distant
he sees only the relation to the condition of

278

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the subject, and therefore enfolds it with his
emotions. Hence for him everything falls
under an alternative, good or evil, day or
night, salvation or perdition : here all attempt
at mediation becomes an intolerable weakness.
Spinoza, on the contrary, attacks the importa-
tion of human feelings and passions into the
universe as a gross misrepresentation, indeed
a complete falsification. He regards it as
important to free the ordinary representation
of the world from them, and to fill our thought
and life entirely with the content of things.
Contemplation unmixed with volition and
desire here becomes the acme of life : it teaches
us to look at things " under the form of
eternity," to fit every unit into all-embracing
connections, not to weep or laugh at events,
but to understand them. All true greatness
here consists not in wishing to be anything
particular for oneself, but in seeking to be
entirely absorbed in the infinite : " he who
truly loves God cannot desire that God should
love him in return."

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 279

Who is right, and whose ideal must rank as
the higher ? For both cannot well be co-
ordinated without further trouble, considering
that the directions in which they point are so
sharply divergent ; hence we cannot avoid
deciding between them. But at the same
time it seems impossible to renounce either of
them entirely ; rather, each apparently re-
quires to be supplemented to a certain extent
by the other side, the sharp divergence must
admit somehow or other of being transformed
into a convergence. For the truth from
which we promise ourselves so much, and
which requires so much work and zeal, must
surely be somehow linked with our own
nature, and must in some way or other be
auxiliary to our self-preservation. Otherwise,
how could it move and affect us so strongly ?
On the other hand a happiness which did not
go beyond the condition of the mere subject,
which did not in any way widen our sphere of
life and make more out of us, could hardly
satisfy a reasonable being ; it would not be

280 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

worth the trouble which it cost. Thus it
appears that in the struggle for truth a desire
for happiness, though diminished in intensity,
is at work, but that this desire itself cannot
dispense with that inner purification which the
struggle for truth promises. Hence we are
impelled to inquire how far an approach is
possible, and whether the two aims may not
be taken as opposite poles of a single life.
But for this purpose every movement will
have to be examined for itself.

The conception of truth is among those
which at first sight seem simple and indeed
almost self-evident, but which become com-
plicated in proportion as it is sought to gain
a more exact idea of them. When we speak
of truth in everyday life it is merely a ques-
tion of comparing an image, an opinion, an
assertion of ours with the facts of the case to
which they relate. So far as these facts lie
within the realm of experience such a com-
parison gives hardly any trouble ; truth can

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 281

here be regarded without hesitation as the
agreement of our ideas with objects (adceguatio
intellectus et rei). But man is driven beyond
this conception of truth by his spiritual nature,
which implants in him a capacity to stand
outside the connected series of phenomena,
to reflect on the world and his relation to it.
He develops a thought-world of his own,
distinguishes it from the world of things, and
cannot help asking how the one whole is
related to the other, and how far, in what
his thought makes out of things, their own
being is present. In this connection it seems
as if man were set a great task, as if it were
a question of piercing through an initial mist
and beholding things in their unclouded
reality. At the same time life seems to rise
superior to the varying opinions of individuals
and to attain inner stability. But, however
great the rewards which await the perform-
ance of this task, is it not in itself an
impossible one to fulfil, does it not contain
a contradiction ? We cannot well keep things

282 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

at a distance from us and at the same time
draw them back to us, and the conception of
truth as a copy of reality, as an agreement of
our ideas with a world of things that exists
alongside them, needs only to be more exactly
thought over to be proved to be untenable.
For, assuming that man stands alongside
things, and things make themselves known
to him, would they not be compelled to
adapt themselves to his nature and thereby
become something different from what they
are in themselves ? The gap, and at the same
time the impossibility of immediately bridging
it over, must be all the more strongly felt the
more independent the inner life is made by
the progress of culture. But even if things
could make themselves known to man in their
true nature, how would it be possible to gain
any certainty of it, since we cannot transfer
ourselves to a third standpoint and from there
compare our representation of things with the
things themselves ? But if, in spite of the
obvious impossibility of this solution, a desire

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 283

for truth persists, if it impels man with over-
powering force to seek a thought and life
which proceed from the All, then an essential
change in our relation to reality will become
necessary ; such a change alone can give us
any hope that the apparently impossible may
yet in some way or other become possible.
Hence the work of philosophy has been from
the beginning concerned with the discovery
and development of a relation which should
overcome the contradiction : each of the main
epochs has dealt with this question in its own
characteristic way, there has been no great
thinker who has not attempted ways of his
own in treating of the problem ; in fact, it has
been at this point more than anywhere else
that both the possibility of a philosophy and
its fundamental character have been decided.
But the efforts which are made at the present
day are strongly influenced by this past work ;
hence we shall be compelled to exhibit it in
its main features in order to take the bearings
of our own position.

284 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

In connection with this problem Greek
antiquity followed its usual course and did
not break away abruptly from the naive view,
but developed it and raised it to the spiritual
level. That a universe is present and encom-
passes man with its sure operations is uni-
versally presupposed, and, however much
opinion may change in other respects, this
presupposition is not called in question. Hence
spiritual work finds its main task in developing
to full clearness the relation of man to the
world : here the goal of the struggle for truth
is the philosophical knowledge, the spiritual
appropriation of the world. The chief epochs
have endeavoured to effect this purpose in
different ways, and the course of these
attempts displays a typical character, so that
it tends to repeat itself in later times. First
of all, the predominant thought is that of a
community of nature between the universe on
the one hand and man and his thinking on the
other ; then the two fall apart and the subject
must concern himself with finding definite

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 285

marks of truth in himself ; finally, thought is
assigned the capacity of shaping itself into the
world and comprehending the opposition of
subject and object.

In the classical period of Plato and Aristotle
the influence is still felt of the personification
of the environment which belongs to the naive
way of thinking and which pictures man's
relation to the world as an intercourse with
his like. Fß$ in spite of the decay of that
anthropomorphism which treats things as big
or lktle men, they retain an inner life and
capacity for effort, and the same forces which
move our life seem also to govern the universe.
They do not seem to be imported by man into
the universe, but rather to be communicated
to him from the universe which encompasses
him. It is only because of this inner affinity,
or rather relatedness, that man can hope to
grasp the universe in his thought. The pro-
cess of knowledge is the bringing into contact
of two correlatives which are from the begin-
ning destined for each other, but must come

286 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

to terms before they can attain complete
union. This union is attained in intuition,
which is here closely related to love. It is to
this stage above all that the words of the poet
apply :-

" Were not the eye itself a sun,
No sun for it could ever shine :
By nothing godlike could the heart be won,
Were not the heart itself divine." 1

No doubt on this view truth is still an agree-
ment of the subject with the object, of thought
with being ; but since philosophical knowledge
is nothing but the development of the com-
munity of nature between the spirit and the
universe, no complication arises from this
conception. It is not inconsistent with the
most joyous confidence of ability to grasp the
complete truth of things, and to participate in
the true life of the universe. Men may hope
to appropriate the whole depth of things since
no cleft has yet opened between the activity
and the being of things, but, rather, their

1 Goethe, Zahme Xenien : cf. Plotinus, Enneads, i. 6.

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 287

whole being is present in their activity. On
this conception thought is clearly enough
separated from all merely sensuous perception,
but it takes up into itself a certain objectivity,
a plastic form, and thus acquires a certain
affinity to such perception. Scientific work is
itself a kind of artistic moulding, an appropria-
tion and inner revivifying of things, a co-
ordination in thought of the manifold into a
unity, a transformation of the chaos of sensuous
impressions into a well-ordered cosmos : it is
at the same time a joyous raising of the whole
of human nature to a higher level.

Just as in the case of Plato all this stands
in immediate connection with the whole of
the personality, so here the artistic and plastic
character of thought is still more strongly
marked. When scientific investigation be-
comes independent in the hands of Aristotle
this artistic character tends to fade out of
sight, but it by no means entirely disappears.
There remains a close connection of human
life with the universe, and unwearying

288

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

efforts are directed towards transforming the
world into a web of inner unities, ends, and
forces, and thereby bringing it closer to the
spirit of man and making it transparent to
his intellect. Innumerable threads are spun
between man and his environment, in fact a
vigorous articulation, a systematic organiza-
tion of the whole of reality is attained. But as
the system settled down into greater clearness
there is no longer any possibility of concealing
that anthropomorphism which the whole, with
all its greatness of achievement, involved. It
was bound to seem especially dangerous just
because it was hidden, and men could not
permanently fail to notice that a great deal
of what was here offered as explanation was
nothing more than an image and similitude.
At the same time the whole was bound to
be rejected because felt as an intolerable
mingling of fact and image, as well as
a transference to objects of what is merely
subjective. This in particular was the case
at the beginning of the modern period with

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH

289

Scholasticism, and all the more because the
latter held fast to the forms of Aristotle with-
out being able to retain his spirit and the
inner connections of his thought. But already
in antiquity the increasing severance of man
from the world drove the struggle for truth
beyond the classical solution and compelled
it to seek new paths.

One of these new paths was attempted by
the Stoa. Even the Stoics do not doubt that
the world exists and that man belongs to it,
but for them the close connection between
the two has been loosened. They make the
subject their starting-point and thence seek
to gain enlightenment as to what may be
regarded as real and true. Much zeal is ex-
pended in ascertaining definite marks which
teach men to distinguish genuine knowledge
of things from mere imagination. Investiga-
tion does not here so much enter into the
life and activity of things as sketch certain
fundamental features of the whole and make

men believe in them. At the same time the

290 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

close alliance between philosophy and the in-
dividual sciences, which distinguishes the work
of Aristotle, comes to an end, and the different
sciences go their own ways. But to make up
for this, life in the human sphere is investi-
gated more closely and made deeper; in
particular, it is when his ethical task is clearly
thrown into relief that man believes he is
winning an inner connection with reality and
an assured truth. The truth that appears in
this ethical sphere is confirmed by importing
the whole personality into it : the maintenance
. of knowledge becomes itself a valiant action.
But the attempt to reconcile this knowledge
completely with the whole of the universe
does not succeed : the world which stands
alongside man is predominantly of a physical
and logical character ; if a doubt should arise
the sphere of ethical life may easily be isolated
and appear uncertain : but this also shakes
man's faith in truth. The problems and con-
tradictions which are involved in the Stoic
doctrine have been very clearly emphasized

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 291

by Scepticism, whose achievements have been
far too little appreciated by the moderns.
When the Sceptics saw that there was a rigid
division between subject and object, doubt
was bound to extend further and further
until every avenue to truth seemed barred to
man.

But the modern period was not the first
to oppose this division ; the Greek world had
already done so, principally in the cosmic
speculation of Plotinus. It is here held as a
truth beyond doubt that a knowledge of
things existing outside thought is an absolute ^
contradiction ; and thus, if all knowledge
which deserves the name of knowledge is
not to disappear, things must be compelled to
take their place within the world of thought.
But this cannot be done unless thought makes
itself the object of knowledge and thereby
overcomes the division, in the sense that know-
ledge is nothing but a self-cognition of thought, i
Then investigation had only to bring into
emphatic prominence this activity of thought

29« THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and to express in terms of it all the data of
experience. Plotinus having set about doing
this with vigorous boldness and on the grand
scale, discovered in thought the essential inde-
pendence of life and made this into the soul
of all reality. There is here unfolded a vision
of things from within outwards, from the
whole to the part ; all reality is set in flux, its
different realms become stages in an all-em-
bracing movement. Since it is an essential
unity which underlies all diversity, the appre-
hension of unity is the principal task of know-
ledge, unity is what it strives to see before all
else at every step. In this connection the
thought of infinity arises, a thought which
embraces all oppositions and indeed reduces
them to harmony. Thus the world is co-
ordinated in a magnificent way and filled with
inner life ; the dependence of one thing on
another, the permeating stream of life, the
necessity and importance of the thought of
unity, are enforced with peculiar power. But
this is accomplished by sacrificing all the vivid-

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 293

ness of the concrete and the particular, by-
transforming reality into a realm of logical
relations, which would have constituted a
tissue of mere forms and formulas were it not
that a strong impulse of an emotional nature
had given the whole a deeply religious tone
and thus infused life into it. But when this
tendency prevails, knowledge, just when it
reaches its greatest height, must exchange its
character of scientific insight for that of
obscure feeling, of a freely ranging emotional
mood. Although it may still retain some
truth, this species of knowledge has given up
the attempt to ascertain the detailed content
of the world and has renounced the form of
science.

We thus find a wealth of movement even
within antiquity, and we recognize that it is a
gross error to extend the particular character-
istics of the classical period to the whole of
antiquity. But still throughout all its phases
it did retain one common feature, viz., that
belief in the world's existence was not shaken,

294 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and the relation of man to it was regarded as
the main problem ; it was in close connection
with this that thought maintained its position
as the guide of life. When Christianity made
the heart and core of life to consist in the
relationship to God, and indeed to a God who
is not so much indwelling in the world as
superior to it, this was bound to produce
essential changes both in the aim and in the
character of the struggle for truth. The
main concern of knowledge was now to work

I out the relations between God and man ; but
this was a question on which the work of
science, and indeed the human faculties at
large, were unable to give definite informa-
tion : for this purpose it needed a communi-
cation on the part of the deity, a divine

* revelation, "about God it is possible to learn
only from God " ( Athenagoras). From man,
however, a docile acceptance of this revelation,
an unconditional faith, is demanded : hence
faith and not knowledge is regarded as the
way to the truth that decides the salvation

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 295

of man. Faith is represented as having the
advantage over knowledge not only in its
greater certainty but also in its greater
intelligibility ; even the simplest working-man
may have his share in faith while those who
attain to knowledge are never very many.
The truth, however, which is attained by this
path has for its content great world-events
of a moral nature ; in particular, everything
centres round the problem of man's revolt
and deliverance, everything else becomes a
mere setting; according to Augustine it is
only of God and the soul that it is necessary
to know anything. While the sphere of
human thought is thus confined within the
narrowest limits, there arises at the same time
a far-reaching change in the general outlook
on reality, since the totality of the world is
now regarded as resting upon a free personal
Being, and as being governed by ethical tasks.
Hence man with his ethical strivings may
know himself to be bound up with the deepest
foundations of reality ; he stands at the centre

296 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of the world and may be absolutely convinced
of the truth of the content of faith. Indeed,
for the participators in this ethico-religious
movement the whole world is opened up.
Things seem to express their deepest being in
what they accomplish for the ethico-religious
task. Where they cannot work directly in its
service, they do so in image and similitude,
and thus even the figures and processes of
nature become symbols of what is contained
in sacred history.

But the conception of faith, which is here
the foundation of all certainty, contains diffi-
culties which first give rise to many com-
plications within the sphere of Christian
thought, and finally even threaten to convulse
it. It cannot well be denied that there is a
department of knowledge additional to that
of faith ; then the question becomes, how are
the two related to one another? It is a
question which can receive, and has received,
different answers. In particular there comes
into view a pervading opposition between a

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 297

universalistic and a positivistic mode of
thought : the one seeks to bring faith and
knowledge into friendly alliance, the other to
keep them as sharply apart as possible. Ac-
cording to which conception is adopted, each
of the two departments will take on a different
form. One means of seeking a combination
of the two is to maintain that knowledge is
a preparation for, and a lower stage in, what
comes to its highest perfection in faith. But,
in spite of this subordination, owing to its
close connection with divine truth know-
ledge is directed towards essential problems ;
it acquires a speculative character. But the
content of faith, however superior it may be,
is seized upon, worked over, and illuminated
by thought ; faith appears as another and
higher kind of knowledge, which is only *
possible by communication from God, but it
still remains a kind of knowledge. It is this
mode of thought which finally gained the
ascendancy in the Roman Catholic Church, in
which at the present day it retains an unas-

298 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

sailable supremacy. In the middle ages,
however, it had to wage a hard struggle with
the other type, which has predominantly
gained the adherence of ecclesiastical Pro-
testantism. To the latter type the above-
described mode of reconciliation seems to
endanger the characteristic nature of faith,
the specific character of the facts, and the
immediateness of the conviction. For the
preservation of these it seems that the sharpest
- possible separation is necessary, an "either
.... or " takes the place of the " both ....
and." Faith thus loses its intermixture with
speculation : but the less it is regarded as
capable of proof, the more it becomes a matter
of free decision ; it is regarded as an act of
* the will and is declared to be a " practical
attitude" {habitus practicus). The facts on
which it is based present themselves as pre-
eminently historical in character and insist
on being received as such. Knowledge, how-
ever, is kept at a distance from these funda-
mental questions so far as possible, and is

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 299

directed towards the world of nature; it
becomes thereby much more closely con-
nected and concerned with experience. This
opposition between a universalistic and a
positivistie, an intellectualistic and a volun-
taristic, mode of thought, divides men to the
present day, and we do not see how it can be
resolved within this range of ideas. Its
deepest root lies in the fact that Christianity
insists at the same time on being an historical
fact and on having a universal validity ; and
according as one or other of these claims
comes into prominence, the mode of thought
will assume this or that form.

Still more difficult than this problem of the
relation between faith and knowledge is the
complication in the conception of faith itself. •
From the beginning faith strove to be some-
thing more than knowledge — a claim which it
could justify only if it proved that it sprang
from a greater depth of the soul; it carried
out, or at any rate attempted to carry out,
this justification by putting itself forward as

300 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

a manifestation and expression of the whole
nature, as a purely inward matter entirely
1 dependent on free decision. But the willing-
ness to receive a divinely revealed truth, and
the resolution not to be led astray from alle-
giance to it by any misgivings of reason, have
a necessary presupposition ; the divine origin
of the doctrine in question must be exempt
from all doubt, infallible testimony must
assure us of it. But only science can examine
whether such testimony is really available, and
hence it seems that an act of knowledge must
precede faith. The misgiving which results
from this would be more easily removed if it
were a question of something which arose in
the life of the individual and could prove itself
immediately by its elevating influence : but it
is here a question of facts in the history of the
world, which lie beyond the life of the indi-
vidual and have first to be imparted to him.
How can faith in such facts prove that it has
an unassailable right ? Roman Catholicism
has supposed this difficulty overcome by its

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 301

assertion that the Church has a teaching office
entrusted to it by God ; but this assertion has
first to be proved, and the study of history
shows that there are very weighty objections
to it. In any case the decision of the question
lies with science ; and this shows that the
foundation of faith is dependent on the very
thing above which it strove to raise man. At
the average level of life faith is thus nothing
more than a docile acceptance of what the
Church brings forward as truth, which is here
guaranteed by tradition and authority. If, in
opposition to this, Protestantism represented
faith as arising immediately in the individual,
the presupposition was that the facts which
form its basis are accessible to every individual
and must be immediately self-evident to him.
We cannot doubt to-day that the matter is by
no means so simple. According to the form
which the question has recently taken, it is
sought to attain certainty of faith principally
by a combination of psychical experiences and
historical facts ; psychology and history are to

S02 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

work together towards the same goal. But
each of these has had its credibility seriously
shaken by modern investigation ; and the
combination of two uncertain quantities can
never by any possibility produce a certainty.
Thus at the present day faith, which was to

• relieve man of all doubts, has itself become an
object of doubt ; its power of conviction is
limited to a sphere within which man feels
himself encompassed by a clearly defined
religious world, certain and self-evident, which
makes both the existence and the proximity of
the Deity as obvious to him as his own exist-
ence. If this world falls into discredit, indeed
if it loses in any degree the naive certainty
which it possessed for the men of the middle

» ages, faith ceases to be a sure foundation for
truth and itself becomes a difficult problem.

The more the modern period has developed
an independent character the more has the
specifically religious conduct of life retreated
into the background and had its presupposi-
tions shaken. The first result is a great

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 303

uncertainty as regards the problem of truth.
Christianity has torn man away from the
coherences of the world which encompassed
him in antiquity, and the increased independ-
ence of the soul forbids a simple return. But
he is no longer certain even of the Deity ; in
any case his relation to the Deity no longer
controls the whole of life. In this situation
where can he now turn to find truth, and
what meaning can this conception still retain ?
In accordance with the experiences which we
have described man can seek truth nowhere
else but in himself ; his own life must possess
a depth which even for himself at first lies in
a dim and distant background ; with the full
appropriation of this depth, however, he may
hope to discover a world in himself, or rather
he may himself grow into a world. The
object then to be aimed at is a transference of
life, not into something which exists outside
us or above us, but into something which
belongs to us, but which can become com-
pletely our own life only by a vigorous trans-

304 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

formation, and indeed revolution. Reality is
not here found already existing, but it has to
be built up from within : truth is thus a
striving of life towards itself, a seeking for
its own being. Hence it cannot be the agree-
ment with a given reality: it becomes an
agreement with itself, a self-co-ordination of
a life which becomes independent and raises
itself to a higher level, instead of remaining
disintegrated and constrained. Its verification
can only lie in the fact that, by embracing it,
the whole of existence is transformed into
spontaneous life, raised to an essentially higher
level, and at the same time united into a whole
of creative effort which moulds reality.

Here the main problem is to find the point
where a spontaneous and creative life springs
up in man as the deepest thing in his own
nature. According to the form which this
life takes, different forms will be assumed by
reality and truth ; but that such a life is
attainable in some way or other is the common
presupposition of that faith in reason which

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 305

pervades the creative efforts of the modern
period and is enunciated with particular clear-
ness in the works of its leading thinkers. The
reason which is immanent in the human race
must now take the place of the universe and
the Deity. This, too, is common to all
attempts, viz., that the movement does not
proceed from a pre-existing world towards
man, but from man towards a world which
has first to be constructed. This movement
draws everything into itself which at the
beginning lies outside it ; it tolerates nothing
which does not conform to the necessities
indwelling in it ; everything previously existing
must fit in with and accommodate itself to
these necessities, or it can no longer maintain
its position. It is evident how great a change
comes over human activity as compared with
the older way, how much it gains in independ- *
ence, how much more active and productive
it becomes, but at the same time how much .
more restless and critical. In moulding the

world it will insist on developing things from

306

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

their first beginnings and at the same time on
gaining control over them : this it is which
principally determines the character of modern
science, and it is also the impelling force to-
wards a complete renewal of human existence.

The question as to where such a life
emerges in man is now closely connected
with the attempt, which has been previously
discussed, to find in thought the persistent
power that is able to hold together existence,
which otherwise strives to diverge, and to gain
a spiritual mastery over it. The predominant
tendency is first of all to declare that thought
is that spontaneous creative effort which raises
man by himself above the pettily human and
leads him to truth by enabling him to parti-
cipate in the life of the world. It was thought
in particular which, throughout the centuries,
undertook and carried through the working
out of objective necessities and wide com-
plexes in opposition to the narrowness and
constraint of the pettily human. In this
movement it raised itself more and more

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 307

freely above the immediate existence of man,
co-ordinated itself more firmly on its own
basis, and took up into itself to a continually
increasing extent whatever confronted it as
an independent world. In this advance of
thought three chief stages can be dis-
tinguished ; the Enlightenment (Descartes,
Spinoza, and Leibniz), the critical philosophy
(Kant), and constructive speculation (Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel).

When the Enlightenment took the thinking
subject as the starting-point of the struggle
for truth, it would have gained very little by
doing so if it had not discovered in this
subject a definite content and a moving force.
It found these in the "innate ideas," the
" eternal truths," which seemed to form an
absolutely certain original endowment of the
human spirit. When these truths unfold
themselves, seize upon the surrounding world
and shape it conformably to their own
demands, a realm of reason arises and vouch-
safes man an apparently universally valid and

308

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

unassailable truth. But neither the repre-
sentation of nature nor the sphere of man
can reach the state of truth except by toil-
some labour of an intellectual nature. The
object to be aimed at is a thorough purgation
and sifting, which must get rid of everything
that refuses to be illuminated by thought,
while everything that stands the test is more
effectively revivified, and more firmly co-
ordinated. This gives rise to natural science,
• with the exactitude of its mathematical
methods, and also to a culture based on
reason, which makes a problem out of every-
thing handed down by historical tradition,

- and lets nothing pass which cannot clearly
and distinctly prove its rights at the bar of
reason. This attempt, however, derives its
self-confidence and its power chiefly from the
conviction that reason is not a matter of

- mere man, but controls the universe ; hence
what man recognizes as truth can have a

- limitless validity beyond him ; he himself,
however, gains a high life- task and a com-

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 309

pletely satisfying happiness by participating
in this universally valid truth and in the
building up of a kingdom of reason. Thus
Leibniz is of opinion that the whole earth
" cannot serve our true perfection unless it
gives us opportunity of finding eternal and
universal truths, which must be valid in all
worlds, indeed in all periods, and, in a word,
with God Himself, from whom they continually N
proceed." Both with Leibniz and in the
Enlightenment generally, faith in the posses-
sion of universally valid truth rests on the
conviction that the human reason is grounded
in a divine world-encompassing reason. It -
was sought first of all to find a basis for
this conviction in close connection with the
traditional transcendent conception of God ;
faith in the veracity of God may then
enable us to trust our own reason with
complete confidence if it conscientiously ob-
serves the rules prescribed to it. Spinoza,
however, with his philosophy of immanence,
goes so far as to conceive that a cosmic

310 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

thought is immediately present in us, that it
is not so much we who think as it which
thinks in us ; the only important point, there-
fore, is to make sure of such a cosmic thought,
and we can do so, according to Spinoza, if we
free our intellectual work from the influence
of human conditions and aims, and allow it
* to be determined purely by the inner neces-
sities of thought itself. For what makes the
usual representation of the world inadequate
and erroneous is that man is treated as the
centre and goal of all reality, that in par-
ticular the oppositions which belong merely
to human modes of feeling, such as the anti-
thesis of good and bad, beautiful and ugly,
etc., are imported into the universe, and have
grossly distorted its image. The first condi-
tion of truth is, therefore, a modest self-
repression on the part of man, a willing
submission to the necessities of things as
thought reveals them ; man must remove the
centre of gravity of his own being from the
confused whirl of the passions into a passion-

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 311

less thought, into a contemplation of things
which is unmixed with volition and desire.
Pure thought of this nature can place man
in the stream of a cosmic life, deliver him
from everything that is pettily human, and by
the opening up of an eternal and infinite life, *
vouchsafe him complete rest and blessedness.

But, however high may be the position
which Spinoza thus assigns to thought, and
however strongly he represents it as self-
moving and progressing in accordance with
its own necessities, he does not deprive it of
all relation to objects existing outside itself ;
he holds fast to the position that, while
thought unfolds its own nature and necessi-
ties, it corresponds at the same time to a
being which exists alongside it ; in place of
agreement we have here a parallelism of K
thought and being, and it seems thus to
become possible that one and the same funda-
mental process of the universe should embrace
both series and come to expression in them.
But, on this solution, not only is the above

312 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

presupposition of an all-embracing world-basis
open to attack, but also the relation between
- the two series leads to the gravest complica-
tion. It must at once arouse misgivings that
Spinoza nowhere puts the two series on the
same level but always subordinates one to the
other ; either thought becomes a mere mirror-
ing of nature, whose laws thus widen till they
become laws of the universe, or thought forms
the core of reality and nature is nothing more
than its manifestation and environment. But
doubt cannot be suppressed on the further
question as to whether, if the two sides are
incommensurable, the idea of a parallelism is
not an absolutely unthinkable thought, whether
it is not essentially self-contradictory. But
whatever doubts of this description may arise,
they cannot obscure the greatness and inevit-
ability of Spinoza's endeavour to discover a
cosmic nature in man himself, to distinguish
in him the merely human from the cosmic ;
at least we do not see how the modern man
could find his way to truth by any other path.

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 313

But was Spinoza right in placing this cosmic
nature solely and entirely in intellectual
activity, and in imagining that every other
kind of life ought necessarily to be degraded '
to a lower stage ? In this way he reached
only a reality of logical forms and formulae,
whose emptiness and soullessness must have -
been immediately evident, were it not that a
mystic and religious intuition, entirely different •
in its nature, had infused life and warmth into •
the whole. In spite of the vigorous energy of
his thought in certain directions, there is no
other philosopher who, in the fundamental
texture of his system, is so compound of
contradictions as the thinker who is praised *
by many as the supreme example of the quest *
for unity.

The struggle for truth reaches a new stage
with Kant. He is the first to recognize clearly
that truth, in the sense of the agreement of
thought with an existence external to it, is an \
absolute absurdity. But since at the same
time the existence of some truth or other is

314 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

insisted upon with the utmost vigour, the
conception of truth must undergo essential
modifications ; in reality a complete revolution
is brought about in the relation between
thought and being. It is now taught, not that
thought has to conform to being but that
being has to conform to thought, that is, we are
acquainted with reality only so far as things
enter into the forms of our intellectual organ-
ization ; truth thus ceases to be for us the
knowledge of things, and becomes the self-
knowledge of the human spirit, which prepares
for itself a world of its own — acting, it must
be admitted, on an impulse independent of
itself. This self-knowledge, however, surpasses
everything which earlier epochs possessed of a
like kind, and gains an incomparably richer
content through the coming to light of an
inner structure, a comprehensive web of spirit-
ual life, in the course of that construction of a
world. In the gaining of this knowledge
there arises a new kind of investigation, the
transcendental, which is concerned with the

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 315

inner possibility of knowledge, as opposed to
the empirico-psychological method, which
treats of its origin and growth in the indi-
vidual man. Our view of reality is thereby
fundamentally transformed, for henceforth all
the coherence which it presents, in particular
all the assertions which it includes about
ultimate grounds, have to be regarded not as
belonging to reality itself but as imported into
it by man. Thus man in his struggle for
truth does not transcend himself, he does not
reach in knowledge a point where a universal
life springs up in him, but remains always
confined to his own circle of thought, the
contents of which cannot be universally valid,
since they have arisen under special conditions
and have not proceeded from an original
creation. For Kant regards it as beyond
question that human thought is non-creative.

But if the Kantian movement from the
object to the subject thus puts human know-
ledge on a much lower level and threatens to
make truth merely relative, it brings us into

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THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

an incomparably happier position in the domain
of the practical reason, in morality. For here,
according to Kant, the subject can rise to
creative activity, eliminate everything specifi-
cally human, and thereby press forward to an
absolute truth. Hence the thinker has no
doubt that the ultimate meaning of the world
is moral, and that man, by participation in it,
attains a universally valid truth, a superhuman
life, and at the same time an incomparable
* greatness and dignity. He reaches these
heights, indeed, only in this special direction,
and not so much by scientific knowledge as
by an inner appropriation which is of the nature
of faith, and which cannot be forced on anyone,
but requires a free recognition, an inward
up-striving of life. Hence this philosophy
does not by any means fail to transform pre-
existing reality and to grasp a cosmic nature
in man, and thus possesses a metaphysics, but
of a kind completely different from all earlier
systems.

The Kantian philosophy forms the beginning

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 317

of a new epoch in the struggle for truth both
in negation and in affirmation. The impossi-
bility of the old conception of truth is clearly
and cogently demonstrated, and at the same
time the philosophical is finally distinguished
from the naive treatment of the problem. All
immediate connection of thought with things
disappears, and there is a simultaneous dis-
appearance of the capacity of thought to reveal
to man by freely ranging speculation a realm
of universally valid truth ; at the same time
the view of the world is freed from the deeply
rooted confusion of subjective and objective *
which had hitherto prevailed. But if man
thus loses the connection with a surrounding
world, he gains in exchange a new world in
his own being, and the very limitation of
knowledge seems to make it possible, this
ethical turn having been given to philosophy,
to put the struggle for truth on a new basis,
which is simpler, surer, and more fruitful than .
any of its earlier forms. The struggle for truth
is here thoroughly purged from all mere intel-

318 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

lectualism, and indeed the conception of truth
is itself deepened.

But the obstinate strife over the interpreta-
tion of Kant soon proved that these changes
did not provide any final solution but gave
rise to new problems ; this is also proved by
the fact that the movement of philosophy so
quickly went beyond Kant. Can the subject
be raised, as is here the case, so as to become a

• texture of inner life, and yet at the same time

• be bound in knowledge to an unfathomable
world ? Is it possible to lift the special
domain of morality above the rest of life to
a condition of complete independence, creative

• activity, and absolute truth ? Will not this
new life either draw the other up to itself or
else sink down to the level of the rest, with its
subjection and its merely human character?
Will the cleavage between the theoretical and
the practical reason, with the conflicting emo-
tions to which it exposes man, be permanently
endurable ? So much is certain ; from the
standpoint of history it is clear that Kant did

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH

319

not provide a final solution, which brought
peace and union, but that he gave rise to a
powerful movement and an enormous amount
of contention.

We know that it was in the first place the
craving for a more effective unity in the world
of thought which drove effort into new
channels. Thought, which with Kant was so
sharply separated from the world, now be-
comes the workshop in which the whole of
reality is created ; it is vigorously thrown into
relief against merely human conditions, and
thus grows to be a world-process which drives
forward all being by its own movement,
fashions all that is apparently alien to it into
its own possession, and proves its rights not
by any sort of external verification but by its
inner mastery of the whole. This movement
which commences in Fichte with directive
force and fervid zeal, reaches its consumma-
tion and its ripest development in Hegel.
Thought is here raised entirely above the
mere subject, it has for its vehicle the work

320

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of society throughout history, which work is
itself thereby co-ordinated and spiritualized.
The motive power of the process is contained
in the fact that thought produces contradic-
tions out of itself and overcomes them, and
that it is thereby driven further and further
until it has finally assimilated the whole range
of existence and at the same time admitted it
to its own truth. Since man can identify
himself completely with this movement, this
self-unfolding of spiritual life, if he vigorously
rejects all his narrow opinions and self-willed
striving, he seems here to participate in the
full and complete truth : nowhere else in the
whole course of history do we meet with so
joyous and proud a feeling of the possession
of truth. Our world of thought, however,
undergoes a radical change of condition when
it is attempted to carry out this undertaking,
in such wise that all the diversity of things is
united to form a single structure, everything
which is apparently isolated is brought into
relation with everything else, everything that

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 321

is at rest is set in active motion, all mere
matter-of-fact is illuminated by logic and
rationalized.

This achievement as a whole has resulted
in a vast increase of spiritual capacity, which +
cannot simply disappear. But as a definitive
solution of the problem of truth it was bound
before long to meet with opposition. It in-
volved the assumption that the spiritual life
of humanity is spiritual life pure and simple,
absolute spiritual life, and it thus exaggerated
human capacity in a way that became intoler- ■
able, especially to the nineteenth century,
with its growing recognition of the subjection *
of man to wider systems. Further, it could
not accomplish this transformation of reality
into a process of thought without either trans-
forming it into a realm of mere shadows and
categories, or else essentially supplementing
it from a richer world of thought and so
leaving the path upon which it had entered.
We know how suddenly the whole structure
collapsed, and this precisely because the pro-

322 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

cess of thought was unable to maintain its
superiority over the subject, because the
subject violently appropriated the increased
mobility of thought, and consequently gave
• rise to an unlimited subjectivism, which
contains no trace of any higher truth common
to all men.

Thus with regard to the problem of truth
we now find ourselves in an extremely un-
certain and confused position. The movement
of history has made an irreparable breach
with the naive conception of truth : it has
raised claims to which our capacities do not
seem equal, but which we cannot renounce.
It is true that the modern period shows no
lack of attempts to minimize these claims and
to find some sort of truth without metaphysics.
Thus Positivism transforms knowledge into a
mere determination and description of the
relations of things, which in their own nature
are absolutely inaccessible to us ; thus
Pragmatism transforms knowledge into a
mere means and instrument of human well-

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 323

being. But we are impelled beyond such
limitations not merely by the persistence of
theory, which seeks to invent some "meta-
physics " or other for any given existence,
but also by the irresistible power of man's
innate spirituality. That we are not a mere
constituent in a web of relations of things
is sufficiently proved by the very fact that
we are able to consider our relationship to
our environment, apprehend it as a whole,
and recognize the relations as relations. But
as soon as we convince ourselves that behind
the sphere of our knowledge there still lies
an unattainable world, we cannot help feeling
that what we have attained is unsatisfying as
belonging to the mere surface of things. And
what would be fairly tolerable as a limitation
of thought becomes absolutely unendurable
as an ultimate limitation of life. For here,
where it is a question of arousing and co-
ordinating all our powers, it is impossible to
renounce ultimate goals, and therefore the
consciousness that, with all our toil and labour,

324 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

we can never penetrate beyond the surface of
things to their fundamental nature, is bound
to produce an unspeakable emptiness in which
no nature of any force can finally acquiesce.
Was it by chance that Comte himself in the
end set to work with heart and soul to create
new ideals ? Was it by chance that both
Mill and Spencer, at the end of their laborious
days, felt painfully the limitations of the solu-
tion which they had offered, that thus all the
leaders of Positivism were impelled by their
own natures to transcend their own philosophy ?
Man may treat nature as something external,
although this too has its limits, but he cannot
permanently maintain this attitude towards
other men, and especially towards himself.
But this does away with Positivism, which
knows only external relations.

But as regards Pragmatism, which ought
to have more attention paid to it in Germany,
let us accord full recognition to its efforts to
deliver the problem of truth from its customary
isolation and to bring it into closer connection

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 325

v with the whole of life. It is only such a con-
nection which will give truth a firm founda-
tion and enable it to assume a fruitful form.
But the question is, what is understood by
this whole of life ? If it means nothing more
than the complex of actual society, as it dis-
plays itself in the wide field of experience,
the struggle for truth would be subject to all
the dissipation and collision of forces, the
selfish striving after happiness of the mere
man, the spiritual sluggishness of mere average
humanity, and thus truth would be sacrificed
to utility, de-spiritualized, and thereby de-
stroyed. But after all the movements and
experiences of world-history we cannot help
feeling keenly so unfortunate a result: we
* have grown beyond both mere nature and
i merely social existence, we cannot help
measuring this existence by the necessities of
our spiritual life, we cannot turn round and
make the latter depend on the former. The
average condition must be very highly idealized
if it is to be accommodated to the endeavour

326

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

after truth without serious harm. Or else we
must recognize another life besides that of

- the social sphere. But where this assumption
is made explicitly and worked out consistently,
a fundamental transformation of the earlier
situation becomes necessary ; men resume the
quest for a metaphysical system, and once
more the struggle for truth, in the old sense
of the deliverance of man from the merely
human and the winning of a new and more

- essential life, must come into prominence.
Thus we find ourselves in the end agreeing
with Hegel that a highly educated people
without a metaphysics resembles a temple
without a holy of holies. Only let us not
understand by metaphysics something gratui-
tously added by thought to a rounded-off
world, but something which, by a vigorous
reversal of existence, forms the very first step
to a stable and essential reality.

Hence a final renunciation of metaphysics
is impossible without producing such a marked
degradation of life as to be intolerable ; we

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 327

shall have to resume the struggle for truth in
this higher sense of the word. However
certain it is that we cannot do so simply by
returning to the achievements of an earlier
period, yet the experience of history shows us
the direction in which we have to seek our
goal. And this experience leaves us in no
doubt that, when we take up the struggle, we
cannot start from the world nor from a tran-
scendent Deity, but only from the process of
human life. And it is just as certain that the
struggle cannot start from the immediate con-
dition of psychical life, as empirical psychology
determines it, but that it requires a reversal,
a transference to a spontaneous, self-active,
creative life. It is only thus that man can
participate in a cosmic life that forms the
essence of things, and so gain possession of
truth.

Such a reversal has been undertaken with
great energy by the leaders of modern phil-
osophy : the form taken by the attempt was
that a special kind of activity was exalted

328 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

above all the rest, and a new life of an inde-
pendent character developed from it. Some
■ demanded for this purpose a knowledge rooted
, in itself, others a creative moral activity. But
we have seen what complications resulted from
this limitation to a special faculty. This sub-
ordination not only drives life into a channel
that is too narrow for it, but such a faculty
does not seem to be in a position to produce a
new reality from itself, and at the same time
to effect a reversal of previous existence.
Besides, a shaping process of which the trans-
forming powrer does not extend over the whole
range of life will hardly acquire the stability
and certainty which are necessary for this
movement ; in that case doubts and contradic-
tions will continually arise from other sides of
life. Consequently the next requirement will
be that this reversal should extend over the
whole of life, that in particular it should rise
superior to the intolerable cleavage into a
theoretical and a practical reason. Life must
get behind this cleavage, it must be possible

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 329

to reach beyond the individual faculties a total
activity, which by its own movement develops
into an independent reality and at the same
time comprehends the opposition of subject
and object, subjectivity and objectivity. But
this is much what we have in mind in the con-
ception of spiritual life. It is not that a
primary thought or even a creative moral
activity operates in us, but that a new totality
of life, a self-existent and self-sufficing being,
a primary creative power which fashions the
world and expresses itself in complete acts,
makes its presence felt in us — this is the
cardinal principle on the attainment and vivid
realization of which all truth of thought and
life depends for us. Hence it is not a question
of the appropriation and strengthening of par-
ticular sides, but of making independent and
co-ordinating all the inner life that is active in
us, and thus reaching a new starting-point for
the whole of life.

This new life has to confirm its truth by an
enhancement of the whole range of our exist-

S30 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ence. It will be seen that it is only from this
standpoint that the contents and values un-
folded by our life can be understood, and,
further, that the latter is raised to an infinitely
higher level when it is summoned to independ-
ence and co-ordinated into a self-existing and
self-sufficing world. Just as the new life, as
the totality of a new being, is raised still
further above the mere man and the immediate
situation, so also it will make greater demands
than the older kinds of reform ; in face of
the given condition of things it demands at
each separate point a disturbance and trans-
formation of old conditions ; everywhere the
object to be aimed at is to work out an
independent spirituality, to oppose it in the
first place to the average life, and then to
refer it back to this life. The whole of
existence is thereby transformed into a general
problem which can be solved only very
gradually. For this independent spirituality
cannot be suddenly transformed into reality
by a bold fiat, but the work and experience of

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 331

world-history are necessary for this purpose ;
it is only by convulsions and negations that it
is possible to compel life to open up its depths.
But since in the end the truth of thought
depends on the essential content of life,
thought must get rid of the idea that at a
given moment it can reach conclusions which
are final for all periods. Though it must
necessarily insist on a truth which transcends
time and possesses absolute stability, the
stability of this truth does not lie in man but
in the spiritual life, and if man, as grounded
in the spiritual life, must in some way or other
participate in this truth, to work it out to a
self-active possession is a high goal to which
we can only slowly approach. If truth, if a
life which fashions the world and partakes of
the essence of things, are not in the first place
incontestable facts for us, then all our trouble
about them is wasted ; but that they likewise
form difficult problems which are continually
recurring, is shown with peculiar force by the
struggles and confusions of the present. It

332 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

is an urgent necessity for our spiritual self-
preservation that life should be deepened and
renewed ; but this cannot be accomplished
without a bold advance, a successful search
for new connections, a further development of
our world of thought. Can we expect to
advance in these endeavours without the help
of philosophy ? Is it not an indispensable ally
in the struggle for a richer content of life and
more truth of conviction ? And does not the
idea of an independent spiritual life open up
new outlooks and tasks, the possibility of a
revolution ? Humanity has indeed not yet
exhausted the possibilities of life.

If the struggle for truth thus rests on the
craving after a life which partakes of the
essence of things, it cannot possibly divest
itself of all strong emotions and become an
affair of quiet contemplation and selfless
resignation. For the above conception shows
clearly that its motive force lies in the impulse
towards spiritual self-preservation : without
the elemental force of this impulse it would

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH 333

never succeed in overcoming the pressure of
the actual world and in building up a new
world of self-activity in opposition to it. Re-
signation is justified only so far as this spiritual
self-preservation requires much negation and
renunciation just because it is fundamentally
different from self-preservation on the natural
level. This negation, however, must be the
reverse side of an affirmation if it is not to
remain lifeless and unfruitful. It would be
easy to show that even in Spinoza's philosophy
there is no lack of positive and joyous vital
emotion in the depths of existence. But if
this is so, then the irreconcilable hostility
between truth and happiness disappears, the
struggle for truth will help to purify and
ennoble the desire for happiness and will not
tend to suppress it ; it will be able to aid the
latter in overcoming the complications to
which it gives rise.

CHAPTER V

The Problem of Happiness

Our age has particularly urgent cause to
occupy itself with the problem of happiness,
for we are confronted by a remarkable con-
trast between the greatness of the outward
achievements of the age and the insecurity of
its sense of happiness. In successful devotion
to the work of civilization we surpass all other
periods ; how far are we in advance of them in
the knowledge of nature, in the mastery and
utilization of its forces, in the humane ordering
of society ! But it cannot be denied that all
these achievements do not help us to attain
a joyous and assured sense of life, that a
pessimistic tone has become very widespread
and continually extends further. How is it

334

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 335

that with us work and happiness refuse to
associate ?

When such a dislocation compels us to con-
sider the nature and conditions of happiness,
we immediately encounter a grave misgiving.
May man as a general rule make happiness the
goal of his efforts, is it not a sign of a narrow
and petty character that in every effort man
should think principally of what gain he is to
receive in happiness ? Experience, too, seems
to show plainly that not only individual men
but whole nations and religions have been able
to renounce happiness : we know, further, that
thinkers of the very first rank have called for
something higher than the struggle for happi-
ness. But if we look more closely we find
that their opposition has been directed not so
much against happiness as against lower con-
ceptions of happiness : even in the substitutes
which have been offered in its place a craving
after happiness can always finally be recognized.
Men have wanted something different from
the majority, but they have always opposed to

886 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the existing condition of life another which
was higher and better, and have sought to
enlist human feelings and faculties in the task
of attaining it : but is this not a craving after
happiness ? Thus even the Indian sage strives
for happiness when he tries as far as possible
to negate life, to bring it into a condition of
absolute repose and indeed indifference. For
then absorption in the universe or even com-
plete annihilation appears to him a better state
than his previous life with its labours and cares,
its excitements and disappointments. And
the struggle for happiness need by no means
remain bound to the narrowness and poverty
of the natural ego, but rather the very aim of
the struggle may be to find a new, purer,
nobler being, a life which is freed from this
ego and yet remains active and vigorous.
Thus we see that the conception of happiness
is itself by no means simple, and that the
opposition does not apply to happiness so much
as to lower and inadequate conceptions of
happiness. Indeed, it is a thing to be insisted

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 337

upon that man should let the thought of
happiness control his efforts, for it is only by
doing so that he can put all the vigour of his
life and the strength of his emotions into his
action : he cannot devote all his energy to the
struggle after anything in which he does not
expect to find satisfaction for his own nature.
Fundamentally different conceptions are in-
cluded in the term happiness, but it is only
dulness of thought which can agree to a general
renunciation of happiness : all real life is
strictly individual life, and to this happiness is
indispensable.

But this survey has already shown that
happiness is not something simple, that the
understanding of it is only to be reached by
labour and struggle. This lends value to a
survey of world-history in the present con-
nection. Let us then make a hasty journey
through the ages keeping this problem in
view, not in order to consider the whole
array of individual solutions but only to

show the leading types which human life

338 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

has elaborated, and which cannot cease to
occupy us.

We begin once more with the highest
achievements of ancient culture. Here the
answer to the inquiry after happiness rests on
a peculiar attitude towards life and the world
which pervades the whole course of Hellenism.
Effort is supported by the conviction that the
joy of life lies principally in activity, that it is
therefore the chief object of endeavour to enter
upon a state of activity, to assume an active
and not a passive attitude towards things. In
the course of Greek development, activity, on
the high level of the spiritual life, has continu-
ally retreated further and further from contact
with the immediate environment, and has
taken refuge in the inner nature of man, and
indeed finally in the relation to a being superior
to the world ; but yet faith in activity and joy
in activity have always remained. In the
struggle which Plotinus finally waged against
Christianity it was a leading consideration that
this religion makes man hope and wait too

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 339

much for help from an outside source, while
the good cannot gain the victory unless every
individual himself takes up arms and fights.
On the Greek view, activity needs no reward
in order to gain the allegiance of man ; it is
its own joy and reward : as Aristotle says, all
life possesses a " natural sweetness."

But now the question arises, in what, then,
does the activity consist which is able to
control and fill life ? With regard to this
question thinkers were naturally bound to
go their own ways. They seek what leads to
the highest form of activity in that which
distinguishes man from other beings, and
exalts him above them : this is reason, which
is here defined more exactly as thought. In
virtue of his thought man can overcome the
distraction of sensible impressions and the
transience of external stimulations ; he can
grasp permanent values and aims ; in fact, he
can leave behind him the whole domain of
civil life with all its petty interests*, and in the
contemplation of the universe, with its eternal

340 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

order and wonderful beauty, he can attain a
true and lasting happiness. He can return
hence to man and his soul, and here also strive
to attain a condition essentially higher than
the average.

To this effort Plato was the first to give an
individual character and a vigorous elabora-
tion. His conception of happiness involves
an energetic negation and rejection of the
usual human existence: all the happiness
which is there offered and commended seems
to him fleeting, external, and illusory. But
science reveals to the thinker the possi-
bility of contemplating an eternal order of
things which, in accordance with his character-
istic tendency towards grandeur and vividness
of conception, becomes co-ordinated into a
whole, the world of ideas. This ideal world,
with all its superiority, is not intrinsically
alien to us, but he who strives with all his
might to attain it can gain complete possession
of it and make it his own life and being. In
this appropriation of a real and perfect world

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 341

the thinker finds a happiness which is beyond
comparison with anything else that life offers.
But even the individual life of man takes
another course when a higher world is thus
revealed to him : it is in particular the com-
bination of scientific thought with the forma-
tive activity of art which everywhere reveals
great tasks and leads to genuine happiness.
The work of science is to destroy all mere
appearance and everywhere to throw into relief
something essential : it also frees its disciple
from all external dependence and places him
entirely on his own basis. Art as formative
effort, however, finds a high goal set before it
by the fact that human life contains a wealth
of potentialities and powers which must some-
how be reconciled with one another. No one
of all these different potentialities ought to be
rejected or stunted, but all ought to be associ-
ated in carrying out their common task in
such a way that higher and lower are clearly
separated, the former gaining a secure ascend-
ancy while the latter willingly subordinates

342 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

itself. When this is successfully accomplished,
when all the diversity of things is clearly
marked off and graded, human life in itself is
fashioned into a perfect work of art. It is the
vigorous realization of this work of art, the
self-contemplation of man, from which true
happiness proceeds. In the possession of such
happiness, which is grounded in his own nature,
man may feel himself superior to all fate, for
this inner harmony cannot be destroyed or
even diminished by anything that comes
from outside. Thus Plato sketches that
magnificent picture of the suffering just man,
who is misjudged and persecuted even unto
death, but who through all the attacks upon
him actually gains in inward happiness. On
this view, further, action needs no external
reward, for this contemplation of inner harmony
contains complete happiness in itself. The
only presupposition is that the inner condition,
while differentiating itself into harmony and
disharmony, should enter into feeling and life
in its pure and undisguised character, that the

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 343

reflection in our consciousness should be
absolutely faithful. The chief distinction of
this doctrine of happiness lies in the fact that
it brings the internal disposition and its mani-
festation, the good and the beautiful, into the
closest connection, but represents the whole as
finding its joy and motive force immediately
in itself. Here all petty calculation of private
advantage, all thoughts of reward and punish-
ment, have sunk out of sight.

Aristotle shares this conviction in all essential
particulars, but he puts a peculiar complexion
on it by another mode of marking it off from
the ordinary conceptions of happiness. The
usual struggle for happiness is, according to
him, only a pursuit of external goods ; the
devotion of all one's life and efforts to this
pursuit involves an inner contradiction, and
indeed the deep degradation of man. For
these external goods are after all only means
to life ; an endeavour which is directed towards
them never reaches rest and satisfaction ; it is
driven onwards to infinity and yet always

344 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

remains dependent on external things ; with
its pursuit of outward results it robs man of
all inward independence. True satisfaction
can come only from an activity which finds
its task in itself and does not strive after any-
thing beyond itself. Such an activity is
reached when all powers unite and acquire a
great depth of purpose under the guidance of
reason, when a strong and earnest man con-
sciously expresses himself and his character in
his actions. But as the feeling of happiness
generally corresponds to the content of life,
man will gain all the greater happiness the
more successful he is in filling his life with
significance : there is no full happiness without
greatness of soul. Joy in activity, however,
will on its side contribute towards raising
activity to a higher level, and thus life itself
will be enhanced by happiness. In this con-
nection Aristotle has weighed and measured
with circumspection and sureness of touch the
relation of human action to Fate. The activity
which decides our happiness undoubtedly

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 345

postulates the fulfilment of many conditions
and the co-operation of many auxiliaries ; a
maimed and crippled man cannot exercise any
full activity, and, generally, we must to a
certain extent be favoured by circumstances
if we are to unfold what is latent in us. But
however strongly Aristotle recognizes this,
he does not believe that man becomes on this
account a plaything of Fate. For the main
thing in all activity is always the inner power
and capacity. Though for its consummation
it may need to be brought on the stage of life,
even without this it is as little lost as the
dramatic poet's work of art which is never
acted. Spiritual power is equal to dealing
with the average amount of suffering and con-
straint which life presents. Excessive afflictions
may of course destroy the happiness of life,
but in any case they are of rare occurrence, and
even they are unable to make a noble man
really miserable : for his beauty of character
shines through all unhappiness.

Thus the great classical thinkers have

346 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

sketched an ideal of happiness which has
always claimed the attention of humanity as
the type of a vigorous, joyous, and noble
scheme of life. But the further movement of
history soon made it evident that the ideal
rests upon definite presuppositions and does
not overcome certain limitations. It demands
a pre-eminent power of spiritual creation ; it
assumes not only that the soul is directed
towards the good but also that the spiritual
faculty is a match for every obstacle ; it needs,
further, the conviction that man can grasp the
complete truth with his thought and make it
the setting of his life. But the beginning of
Hellenism involved a great revolution which
modified the relation of man to reality. With
the traditional order of life shaken to its
foundation, it became the supreme necessity to
win for him an inner self-sufficiency, a com-
plete independence of and superiority over
everything which lies without him. But this
can only be accomplished if his interest is
dissociated from externals, if his relation to

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 347

all experiences of external happiness or un-
happiness ceases to be that of feeling or
suffering and becomes one of complete indiffer-
ence, so that he takes refuge entirely in his
thought, in the realization of a cosmic reason
and the consciousness of an inner greatness.
A man who thus gains by thought a living
realization of the totality of the universe can-
not be moved or agitated by anything which
happens in the world of experience ; even if
this world were shattered he would not be
dismayed. The development of this spiritual
superiority has greatly strengthened the inner
life and has led man deeper into his own soul :
it has supported him in troubled times by
rousing the heroic elements in his character,
but the many problems which as a whole it
contains cannot well remain hidden. The
fundamental thought which here forms the
basis of life is more of a negative than of an
affirmative nature ; it exalts character above
the world, but it does not lead to the permea-
tion and moulding of the latter ; hence, how-

348 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ever powerful may be the stimulus, it is easy
for a feeling of emptiness to arise. Further,
this ideal of life needs great and powerful
souls, it requires heroic energy to maintain
the fundamental conviction when the whole
environment contradicts it. Hence, as soon
as doubts about the spiritual power of man
arose and spread, faith in this ideal was bound
to wane.

Doubts of this kind, moreover, continually
gained ground as the ancient world ran its
course : man continually developed a deeper
sense of the obscurity of the world, and felt
himself continually less equal to dealing with
its sharp oppositions. In particular, it was
the opposition between spirituality and sensu-
ousness which occupied and agitated men's
minds to an ever-increasing extent. The old
harmony between the spiritual and the sensible
was replaced by its opposite as spiritual power
became deadened and the life of the senses
more refined ; in the end, this was intensified
to an antipathy against all sensuousness and

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 349

a passionate longing somehow to gain de-
liverance from it and to participate in a purer
life. But man felt himself much too weak to
bring about this change from his owrn re-
sources : thus a longing arose for supernatural
help, and the Deity was invoked to raise man
to a higher life. These changes destroy the
old rest and security ; life is tossed hither and
thither between conflicting moods ; longings,
hopes, and dreams take the place of a secure
possession ; the fixed forms are dissolved and
a journey begins towards the distant, the
formless, the unlimited. The whole is thrown
into enormous agitation by the fact that
human existence is thought to be encompassed
by influences proceeding not merely from good
but also from evil spirits, destroying demons,
and that thus a consciousness of responsi-
bility, indeed a torturing fear of eternal punish-
ment, makes itself felt. In such a situation
deliverance and happiness can be hoped for
only from the assistance of a supramundane
Deity ; such a Deity must come to the rescue

350 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

in a miraculous manner and give man a share
in his perfection. In order to reach this it
is necessary for man to come out of himself,
and a condition of ecstasy becomes the highest
level of life. As regards the sensuous, however,
the object to be aimed at is the highest
possible degree of renunciation, a strict
asceticism. In the whole scheme the position
of humanity is wrapped in deep gloom, but
it is precisely from this sense of darkness that
there proceeds the strongest impulse towards
liberation from all misery, towards the attain-
ment of full and vigorous happiness. In the
wide field of existence this endeavour gives
rise to a remarkable situation, in which the
most various elements, higher and lower,
superstition and the scientific impulse, greed
for happiness and willingness for self-sacrifice,
meet in a confused medley. It needs a great
personality to wrest from this chaos a pure
ideal of life and happiness : such a personality
appeared in Plotinus.

In the change of direction which was due

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 351

to Plotinus the essential point is that here
religion is no longer, as it had been to the
average man, a mere means to subjective
happiness, but that it promises to make some-
thing essentially new out of man and to get
rid of all the pettiness of a separate existence.
What is new is that the whole universe
appears as a single life, which always remains
self-contained even when it unfolds into multi-
plicity, and that at the same time it seems
possible by means of thought to transport
oneself into this unity of the All and thence
to regulate the whole of one's life. The
winning of such an inner unity with the All
promises an incomparably higher life and
incomparably higher happiness. For union
with the ultimate basis of the All enables man
to gain the whole of infinity and eternity for
his own possession, and to comprehend all
oppositions. At the same time he attains
thereby a purely inward life, since here all the
value of action lies in its relation to this
cosmic unity ; all external achievements, on

352 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

the other hand, become completely indifferent.
A further result is complete independence of
fate, since all experiences of joy and suffering
fail to reach this height of life. It is true
that such a life involves a constant movement
in virtue of its relation to eternal being, but
in contrast to the rush and bustle of the world
it appears as perfect rest, as profound peace.
Participation in such an inner life, which rises
superior to the world, must further the es-
sential development of psychic life. As this
primary unity lies above all special differentia-
tion, man cannot attain to it unless he is
able to rise above all diversity of psychical
activities and co-ordinate himself into a unity
superior to all differentiation. The pursuit
of this path leads to the development of a life
purely of the soul and feeling, a freely soaring
disposition, untrammelled by material ties.
Life seems here lightened of all weight and en-
tirely transported into the pure ether of infinity.
Hence it may well be conceived that in the
development of such a life Plotinus experi-

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 353

ences a rapturous bliss, and that this bliss
carries him far above every other happiness
which life can offer. It is equally intelligible
that he does not believe in the possibility of
winning and forcing this life by personal toil
and labour, but that he regards any beginning
on the part of man as necessarily preceded by
a revelation of the absolute life, which has to
be quietly waited for. " Men must remain
in quietude until it appears, and must look
for it as the eye awaits the rising of the sun."
Thus Plotinus by this appropriation of a
universal life carries out a transference both
of being and of happiness into the purely
inward life : it is here first clearly seen what
power the thought of union with the All is
able to gain over the human soul. But it
cannot be denied that there is no path leading
from this inwardness back to the wide field of
life ; the spiritual rapture cannot transform
itself into fruitful work and permeate the
whole of life. Hence in the end there remains

a cleavage between the height of the inner

354 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

life and the rest of existence ; there are only
particular moments when the thought of the
All takes complete possession of man, fills
him with ecstatic rapture, and enables him
both to participate in a bliss beyond descrip-
tion and to forget everything else.

The further limitations in the work of
Plotinus we can best estimate if we keep in
mind his connection with the whole ancient
world. For although with him philosophy
takes a turn towards religion and pure inward-
ness, he does not forsake the connections of
ancient life. This life regards man and all
his efforts as an item in a given world which
is complete in itself and rounded off: the
cardinal task for man is to master this world
and find his place in it. Thought, which
connects him with the All, thus becomes the
guiding force in spiritual life ; but just as this
thought arises in the soul of every individual,
it is likewise the concern of every individual to
carve his own way to happiness. Man is not
dependent on others, neither does he work for

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 355

others ; there is here no inner solidarity between
men, no assimilation of another or of the
whole into one's own inner being ; the destiny
of mankind is not lived out at each individual
point, nor is any activity entered upon for the
elevation of the general condition, but as the
individual here stands entirely on his own
basis, so he lives only for himself and even in
his happiness is inwardly lonely ; there is here
no inner world encompassing men and form-
ing a bond of union between them. Hence it is
not to be wondered at if the great differences
between individuals, which human life un-
deniably shows, are accepted as final and com-
pletely control the system of values. An
aristocracy of the spirit is sharply distinguished
from the rest of humanity : it alone, with its
spiritual power and greatness of character, has
any share in true happiness ; such happiness is
refused to the others, and this refusal causes
no pain to those on the higher level. The
rigidity and hardness of the whole also be-
comes apparent in its estimate and treatment

356 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

of pain. Greek thinkers have by no means
treated pain lightly, as seems to have been
thought in former times, but they have dis-
played the greatest reluctance to admit it
among the fundamental constituents of life.
As thought was here concerned as a general
rule to prove that the world, in spite of all
the pain obviously existing in it, is a kingdom
of reason, so the highest task in life seemed
to be to prohibit all approach of pain to one-
self, to put on against it armour of proof
through which it cannot possibly pierce.
Thus immense complication was bound to
arise when, after all, the sense of pain grew
continually stronger and refused to be treated
as a mere appearance, or to be kept at a wide
distance from the inmost part of life. That
joyous doctrine was then in some risk of being
transformed into its exact opposite. The
Greek ideal of happiness, with all its serious-
ness, is not on the whole free from an
audacious optimism. To find perfect happi-
ness in activity is something not to be hoped

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 357

for apart from the conviction that such activity
has been from the first exerted within the
sphere of truth, and that, provided all powers
be strained to the utmost, it reaches its goal
with absolute certainty. Thus, as a matter of
fact, the opinion of the ancient world is that
a well-directed and vigorous struggle for truth
must undoubtedly reach truth, and that all
spiritual power is certainly working towards
the good. There are as yet no shattering
doubts and inner dissensions in the spiritual
life itself, or, where they appear, they are
thrust into the background and attention is
averted from them. The struggle for truth
of the old thinkers presupposes the rationality
of the universe : they neither appreciate the
irrationality of human existence at its full
value nor fight against it with all their powers.

It is this irrationality of existence which
affords the starting-point for the Christian
pursuit of happiness ; it is here for the first
time that it gains full recognition. For it is
not this or that item in the world which here

358

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

seems wrong, but the whole condition is full
of confusion and disorder ; the perversion,
however, reaches its highest point in the
ethical alienation of man from God, and it is
here that the transformation too must begin.
But where the mischief goes right down to
the root, and where a renewal of the whole
of existence is requisite, the new departure
cannot proceed from the private resources of
man but only from divine love and grace ;
it is the fundamental conviction of Christianity,
however, that such a love has really been
made manifest and that it promises deliverance
to every individual. As all evil arose out of
the separation from God, so the highest good
can consist in nothing else but re-union with
God : but this affords a bliss incomparably
superior to every other form of happiness.
For here man obtains a share in the whole
wealth of divine life ; here he is entirely trans-
ported into a kingdom of love, of childlike
trust, of saving grace. Moreover his soul
acquires a peculiar state of tension, since the

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 359

initial situation, above which he is raised, does
not simply disappear but persists within the
new life, which thus runs its course amid sharp
contrasts. An undertone of pain accompanies
the bliss, and may even seem to be enhanced
by the presence of the higher elements ; but.
on the other hand, happiness gains by the
contrast both in intimacy and stability. Placed
amid such contrasts the soul remains in con-
stant inner movement : happiness cannot here
be thought of as a possession acquired once
for all, and the condition of man as a state
of perfection, but it is only an inner superiority
to the whole realm of conflict which is offered,
and it is in the inmost ground of his being
that man is absorbed into divine life. The
point of superiority of this new life and the
corresponding happiness over everything which
could be attained in Hellenism, even by the
path of religion, is that here a true inner
world arises. What makes this possible is
that here the divine is not conceived in the
first place as the unchangeable unity, the

860 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

essential being, but as the ideal of personality,
as moral perfection, as almighty love. The
relation to such a Being may rise to the
highest power and warmth, the inwardness
of thought may be heightened to the intimacy
of the full personality : man in general, and
each man in particular, may know that he is
supported and guarded by eternal love. In
this realm all differences of spiritual capacity
disappear and everything depends on the force
and faithfulness of the character, on the ethical
direction of the nature, which everyone is able
to display.

The particular character of the whole is
especially prominent in the treatment of pain,
which is in flat contradiction to the Greek
method. Here, where man cannot find his
way to the heights until his nature has
undergone a mighty convulsion, and where
the most difficult problems concern the soul
itself, it is impossible to follow the Greek
thinkers in expelling pain and keeping it
wholly at a distance from the inner life.

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 361

On the contrary, pain here becomes indis-
pensable for the deepening of life and as a
preparation for the good : indeed, the assertion
is actually made that in pain itself there is a
blessedness, so that those who suffer pain are
praised as blessed. In this connection those
who take an external view might think chiefly
of the joy of a future life, to which pain
forms a mere passage, but the more spiritually
minded have sought to show that the trans-
formation of soul which proceeds from
suffering contains in itself a deepening and
strengthening of life. According to Gregory
of Nyssa a good becomes manifest in pain
itself; the absence of the good could not
move us to such strong and passionate grief
if it were not something pertaining to our
being; hence it is precisely distress of such
a kind which gives us assurance of a depth
of our nature. In pursuance of this line of
thought a special unhappiness may be ascribed
to the man who now feels himself happy, for
it is just this which circumscribes his life and

362 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

prevents it from reaching further depths. In
the same way the strong feeling of the im-
measurable pain of existence is for Augustine
a sure sign that the present is not the final
and complete existence, that, rather, we
belong in the ultimate basis of our being to
another and higher world. In a similar way
from the agitating and shattering power of
doubt he infers that truth does subsist and
has a close connection with our being ; non-
possession accompanied by a painful feeling
of want everywhere attests for him the im-
possibility of renunciation, the active operation
of a higher life. Thus Christianity in its
struggle for happiness has taken up negation
into the heart of life, and thereby for the first
time made life truly superior to it. If there
is a consequent danger that life may tend too
much towards softness, mildness, and gentle-
ness, this one-sidedness is counteracted by a
strong impulse towards activity proceeding
from the innermost being of Christianity:
did it not come to renew the world, to put

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 363

humanity on its feet again, to build up a
kingdom of God even on earth ? It promises,
therefore, not merely deliverance from pain
and guilt but also the revelation of a new
and higher life. But it cannot be denied
that historical circumstances have permitted
this affirmative side of Christianity to develop
to a much smaller extent than the negative :
once more it was the influence, so often
described, of that weary and languid period
which gave the one side an unwarrantable
predominance. Complete deliverance from
suffering and ail the confused bustle of the
world, rest and peace of mind — these became
the highest of aims.

However convinced we may be that this
development of Christianity which holds aloof
from the world does not extend to its inmost
essence, and that it leaves open the possibility
of other developments, it at first gained the
victory over them and ruled for long ages.
The difficulty about this kind of Christianity,
which has met us under many different forms.

364 I THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

can be clearly seen also in connection with the
problem of happiness. For it seeks happiness
too much in separation from the world ; it is
in danger of sinking into weakness by not
grappling with things courageously but only
rising superior to them in the mind. Since
feeling is not sufficiently transformed into
action, it is impossible for happiness to inform
and animate the whole of life. Another
drawback arises from the fact that the
emphasis on suffering easily leads to a
lingering over mere suffering, indeed to a
sentimental revelling in pain, such as we
see especially in religious poetry and often in
an unedifying form. A further consideration
is that a happiness which is thus divorced
from the rest of life must become insecure
as soon as the whole of this religious
system atization of life begins in any way to
be doubted : but we all know that such
doubts did arise and have spread. The
history of Christianity shows, it is true, much
diversity on all these points : the medieval

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 365

system of Catholicism appears in very different
hues ; still there is no mistaking the wide
divergence between the predominantly passive
character of the middle ages and the greater
activity which proceeded from the Reformation
and which has reacted even on Catholicism.
For the Reformation, in imposing the strong
contrasts of the Christian life on the soul of
every individual, in rousing in it a greater
stir of emotion and summoning it to more
vigorous activity, could not but effect an
inner transformation of happiness as well.
But in spite of everything here also happiness
remained a matter of the inner consciousness
superior to the world ; it rested too much on
a hopeful faith in a new order for it to ally
itself with any valiant and vigorous attempt
to grapple with and transform the surround-
ing world. Hence it always retained a certain
weakness and tenderness ; it is easy to under-
stand how a period filled with a more vigorous
vitality and pleasure in activity pressed beyond
such a conception.

366 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

This is what happened to a large extent in
the modern period. In this period man seeks
happiness not so much by retreating into the
sanctuary of the soul as by coming out of
himself, unfolding and utilizing his powers : a
great deal here depends on the conviction that
man is not assigned a limited capacity by
nature and fate, but can grow without limit,
continually develop new powers, and set him-
self higher and higher aims. Nothing seems
to give a clearer proof of man's greatness, and
indeed of his relationship with the Deity, than
this capacity for progress to infinity. On the
very threshold of the modern period it is
absolutely clear that this faith in progress
brings with it an essentially different sense of
happiness, a more vigorous and joyous condi-
tion of soul than was known to the middle
ages. Thus we read in Nicolaus of Cusa, the
first modern thinker : " To be able to know
ever more and more without end, this is our
likeness to the eternal wisdom. Man always
desires to know better what he knows and to

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 367

love more what he loves, and the whole world
is not sufficient for him because it does not
satisfy his craving for knowledge." With
such a growth of endeavour the spirit also
must grow in itself: " Like a fire which is
kindled from the flint-stone, the spirit can
grow without limit through the light which
streams from it." This feeling is also expressed
in the succeeding centuries with particular
clearness in the thinkers who are the principal
representatives of the modern movement.
Thus Leibniz is filled with a vigorous faith in
progress and derives from it a sense of happi-
ness and joy. Thus even Hegel is carried
safely over all the oppositions and vexations
of existence by the consciousness of the
constant progress of the whole.

But this faith in progress gains in weight
and content principally because the movement
does not merely increase the powers of the
individual subject but develops the general
situation and makes reality more and more
rational. A central position is here obtained

368 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

by work. In work an activity is recognized
which brings us into the closest connection
with things, since it can take up their nature
and necessity into itself and conform to them.
While man thus binds himself more closely to
his cosmic environment by means of work, he
has a right to hope that by his efforts the
condition of reality may be raised and all the
more so because modern work has tended to
form extensive complexes, has united the
powers of individuals more closely, and by
uniting them has made them capable of
achieving incomparably higher results. But
if man has thus gained in work a means to
advance the condition of the world, it has
given him at the same time stability in his
own nature, it has given his life a broader
foundation and a secure position in face of the
world. Hence for the modern man happiness
is closely bound up with work ; here for the
first time work, which was put in the back-
ground by the earlier systems of life, comes to
be fully appreciated, and by combination with

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 369

it happiness becomes stronger, calmer, and
richer : it is now able to penetrate the whole
range of life.

This modification of work and of happiness
can be followed out in different directions.
We see it, above all, in the building up of
civilization, that is, a condition of life peculiar
to man as opposed to mere nature. By valiant
struggle with the apparently alien world man
extends the boundaries of his domain and con-
structs for himself his own sphere of life. It
is science especially which takes the lead in
this movement and thus proves its power over
things. It is especially clear in connection
with science how the individual in the modern
period has to fit himself into a whole and to
carry out his work in the ranks. But if
definite limits are thus assigned to every
individual, he may cherish the consciousness
that in his place he is indispensable, and by
his activity is furthering the construction of the
whole : " Many shall run to and fro and know-
ledge shall be increased" (Bacon, with refer-

370

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

ence to a passage in Daniel).1 In a still bolder
flight of thought Leibniz declared that we
men, like little gods, in virtue of our reason,
are able to imitate the architect of the world
and promote the welfare of the whole. Man
is " not a part but an image of the Deity, a
representation of the universe, a citizen of the
divine city." If activity here seems to be
principally directed towards serving the pro-
gress of the universe, at the same time there
shows itself in modern society an eager and
active endeavour to raise the condition of
humanity, to eliminate as far as possible all
irrationality from human relations, and to give
more and more strength to reason. For here
the conviction no longer prevails that the
condition of human affairs has been established
once for all by the will of God and must be
accepted by us as an unchangeable fate, but
here also everything appears to be in flux and
capable of enhancement. Thus activity here

1 Bacon 3 De Aug. ScienL, II., x. : " Plurimi pertransibunt
et augebitur scientia." Cf. Dan. xii. 4.

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 371

finds high tasks to perform, all the more since
" everything in human form" becomes an
object of sympathy, indeed a growing feeling
of solidarity makes every individual seem
responsible for all the distress and injustice
around him. Much darkness and suffering
is now really felt for the first time, but it is
unable to overwhelm man because his power
to cope with the misery can increase indefinitely.
The feeling of power and happiness must grow
to an immeasurable extent if man can thus
take up the battle with circumstances and
bring about a new condition of the world.

In this movement as a whole the first thing
which attracts our notice is its larger and
broader effects, but the movement is no less
significant in its relation to what is small and
individual. For it is an essential feature of
modern life that every individual is recognized
as furnishing a specific problem : at every
point his dormant power must be awakened,
the different elements whose previous state is
a confused medley must be adjusted to one

372 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

another and subordinated to a unity which is
able to raise everything to a higher level. In
the development of this effort the individual
finds an exalted happiness in spite of all the
toil and labour. For he here becomes a world
of his own which possesses a value for the
whole just because it is unique. This in-
dividualizing process extends to all human
relations, a uniform development is every-
where avoided, and by the cultivation of
individuality a specific task and joy is revealed.

In the whole there is apparent a powerful
vital impulse which is occasionally heightened
to fierce passion. To be sure, an objective
compulsion and law is also at work and pre-
vents a lapse into merely subjective excite-
ment : resignation, too, is not wanting, since at
a given moment every achievement has de-
finite limits, and since, further, the individual
cannot accomplish anything by himself but
only together with the others and in sub-
ordination to a common aim. But all the
limitations and restrictions at the individual

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 373

point and the particular moment are out-
weighed by the faith in a better future and
in the infinitely increasing power of the
human race. This faith is as indispensable to
the modern period as that in the harmony of
the universe was to antiquity and that in a
benevolent Deity to the middle ages. Such
faith in progress enables the modern man to
bear all his labours cheerfully and to preserve
a vigorous sense of happiness in the midst of
all his work and care. It seems to give life
an absolutely positive content and human
happiness a sure foundation.

We know to what a magnificent develop-
ment of life this movement has led, but we
also know what complications have arisen
from it and how these complications are placed
in the foreground by the consciousness of the
present. The faith in progress which we have
described has been able to fill the whole of
life and make it happy only in virtue of the
conviction that human activity could pene-

374 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

träte things to their foundations and enable
man to appropriate them completely ; but
whether this really takes place became open to
stronger and stronger doubt. Such doubts
first affect science, the leading force in
modern culture. While the height of the
Enlightenment was absolutely convinced of its
ability to fathom things to the very bottom,
Kant has demonstrated to us with irresistible
force the limitations of our knowledge. Far
beyond the domain of philosophy, however,
the conviction has become established in the
nineteenth century that behind the work of
our thought there lies a world of things which
remains inaccessible, and that the mutual
relations of things are all that we can hope to
ascertain. We cannot explain and understand
but only determine and describe. Hence we
are cut off from truth in the sense in which it
admits us to the essence of things and frees
us from the narrowness of a merely human
conceptual world. But what applies to truth
applies also to the whole of culture. It has

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 375

been brought home to us more and more that,
however much we are able to alter and im-
prove in the external relations of things, we
do not thereby attain an essentially new life
and a higher kind of being : all the progress
of civilization has resulted in little genuine
culture and little development of the condi-
tion of the soul. We cannot avoid asking the
question whether such an activity on the mere
surface of things is worth the enormous toil
and labour which it costs.

Similar misgivings are also aroused by our
relation to man. The modern movement
rested on a firm belief in man's efficiency and
natural goodness : it seemed that, if only
ample room were provided for the full de-
velopment of his powers, everything would
shape itself for the best and a kingdom of
reason would be established in the sphere of
humanity. Now, in fact, deliverance from all
kinds of constraint has been secured and
human powers have been unfolded as never
before ; but can we shut our eyes to all the

376

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

complications, struggles, and aberrations which
have proceeded from this deliverance ? At the
beginning of the modern period the conception
of humanity included an emphatic judgment
of value: to develop the human element in
man still seemed to be at our classical period
to raise life to a proud height, but now we are
more conscious of what is petty and mean in
man ; we perceive sharp conflicts in his being,
we find him not merely inadequate for the
tasks which his own nature sets him, but we see
his liberated spiritual powers to a large extent
enlisted in the service of selfishness and, in
general, of pettily human interests, and
thereby diverted from their true ends. Hence
it is not to be wondered at if there is aroused
a longing for deliverance from the pettiness of
man, a craving for greatness ; but it must be
confessed that as a rule these ambitions
quickly succumb again to the influence of
pettiness and vanity. In such a situation how
could it fill us with assured confidence and
pure happiness to work for the improvement

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 377

of the human situation ? The contradictions
which are here involved fail to be fully realized
at the present day simply because estimates of
man which belong to older schemes of life still
retain their influence although they have no
foundation in our period. The religious esti-
mate of man as a "seed-corn of eternity" and the
object of infinite love still retains its influence ;
from the point of view of the faith in reason
which was characteristic of the Enlightenment,
man appears as belonging to a kingdom of
reason, and in virtue of his freedom incompar-
ably superior to all mere nature ; but religion
has been shaken and faith in reason has waned,
and hence in the end this estimate cannot
possibly be maintained. But if it is seriously
meant to transform man into a mere item in
a rounded-off natural world, this does away
with all possibility of bringing any counter-
acting influence to bear on this state of im-
mediate existence, all possibility of inner eleva-
tion, and we do not see how the most distant
future can produce any change in this respect.

878 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

These complications extend also into the
sphere of individual existence, the full re-
cognition of which was a leading feature in
the modern movement of culture. Certainly
much stimulus and pleasure still arise from
the activity of individuals, but the foundation
iias been overthrown which gave these en-
deavours a significant content and an assured
direction. Formerly the individual seemed
to be valuable and the work expended on his
education profitable because in him infinite
life strove to express itself in a unique way.
because, therefore, every individual might
hope that the development of his own nature
advanced the condition of the universe. But
since life is now more and more exclusively
concentrated in the visible sphere, we have
become continually more uncertain of this
foundation ; but, if the individual is com-
pletely tied to the sphere of immediate ex-
istence, his unlimited development must lead
both to severe collisions with other individuals
and mutual hostility, and also to crude sei-

^ THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 379

fishness or even complacent vanity. Once
thought has embraced all these points in a
single survey, the emptiness and unedifying
character of the whole cannot possibly escape
notice ; and then the solution of the problem
of happiness can no longer be expected from
the fullest possible development and recogni-
tion of all individuals.

These misgivings are further increased by
the modern development of work and the
urgency with which its problems are thrust
into the foreground. At the beginning work
still stood in close connection with the soul
of man: the individual could take a pride
and joy in its progress because he saw his
own product in it ; at the same time it still
possessed a restful character, it set life in
motion but the motion as yet was not feverish
or violent ; it still afforded periods of leisure
which permitted men to review the whole
and to transform it into a joyous possession.
And now what a change ! By forming
gigantic complexes work has severed itself

380 THE LIFE OP THE SPIRIT

more and more from the soul of the individual
and goes its way unconcerned for his weal or
woe ; owing to its being at the same time
more and more specialized and differentiated,
the part which the individual has in his field
of vision and under his own control becomes
smaller and smaller. Hence his psychical
power also is developed only in a certain
direction while the rest remains unemployed
and undeveloped. To this must be added
the speeding-up process by which modern
work has been more and more invaded ; it
forces man to be always on his guard and
to hold his powers in constant readiness for
fresh efforts ; this life must bind man hand
and foot to the temporary situation, keep
him in a state of breathless tension and
transform him more and more into a mere
struggler for existence. It cannot be denied
that the whole has led to prodigious results,
but it becomes clearer and clearer that the
man as a whole can find no happiness in such
a life. But if this work thus strains him to

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 381

the utmost without leading him through all
his toil and agitation to any genuine happiness,
and if at the same time it becomes clearer
and clearer that, in spite of the pre-eminent
cultivation of skill in particular directions,
man is sinking to a lower level in the whole
of his being, is becoming insignificant and in
the end empty, the question necessarily arises
whether all this work of civilization, which
renders man neither happy nor noble nor
great, is not a self-deception on the part of
humanity ; whether it is not a huge contradic-
tion to set all one's power in motion with such
passionate earnestness, and, as regards the
whole of one's being, to lose rather than to
gain. What is then the real object for which
man works if he thus becomes a mere means
and instrument in a soulless process of civiliza-
tion ? We have just seen that he does not
attain happiness for himself in the process.
For whom, then, does he work ? For a future
which is wholly veiled from him and which
will perhaps in all its progress only be involved

382 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

in increasing confusion ? Or for the whole of
humanity, which yet from the point of view
of immediate existence is a pale and empty
abstraction, and which, as such, will never be
able to overcome the interests and passions of
the individual? Everything contributes to
raise doubts as to whether the path pursued
by the modern period, especially if it be
pursued exclusively, is able to lead man to
happiness. It is coming more and more
to be believed that, as every individual man
is more than his work, so also the whole of
humanity must be more than the civilization
based on work. It is the craving after in-
dependence of life and true happiness which
drives us beyond the civilization based on
mere work and compels us to seek further
widths and depths of life. But where are
they to be found ?

The craving after a more spiritual civiliza-
tion as opposed to that based on mere work
has become stronger and stronger and brings
to the front many counteracting influences.

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 383

Perhaps the most significant of these influ-
ences is the development of an aesthetic
culture which runs through the period in
broad waves. We cannot deny that this
movement of culture has furnished a valuable
stimulus and indeed has led to an advance :
it has again laid a stronger emphasis on the
independence of individuality, it has given life
more immediacy and more free movement,
more suppleness and more joyousness, and it
may in consequence seem to restore genuine
happiness. But in reality, as a closer ex-
amination is bound to show, when confined
to its own resources it does not afford a
happiness which penetrates to the inmost
heart of life and gives it warmth and eleva-
tion, but only a rich diversity of individual
agreeable moments, of pleasant stimulations
which are not combined into a whole. What
is here offered is only a selfish though refined
enjoyment on the part of the educated, and
often over-educated individual : there is an
absence as well of a high goal as of an

384 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

essential content of life. But without these,
what has happened in the end to all forms
of Epicureanism will also happen here in the
midst of all the enjoyments, however refined
they may be — a feeling of inner emptiness
will break forth irresistibly and reject all the
proffered happiness as shallow and artificial.
Thus, although the individual, and indeed
whole circles of society, may seek in this
manner to escape the complications and
troubles of the period, the way to overcome
them is not revealed by a superficial life of
this character.

In another direction it is sought to win
true happiness by demanding more person-
ality and a more personal shaping of exist-
ence : the ethical task is here given precedence
over artistic activity. This view certainly
contains an incontestable truth, only we must
recognize that a high and distant goal is here
in question, the attainment of which should
not be anticipated so lightly and easily as it
often is. We do not by any means become

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 886

personalities by pronouncing the word with

affection and emphasis, for subjective emotion

is not enough to start our life on a new path. 1

The thought of personality possesses value

only so far as the word is backed by action,

and indeed action which involves nothing less

than the complete transformation of the old,

and the building up of a new reality. How

much this thought demands is shown with

particular clearness by the life-work of Kant.

He saw clearly that there is no personality

unless life is raised to freedom, independence,.

and spontaneity, but he saw just as clearly

that for such freedom and spontaneity the

world of natural existence does not afford the >

smallest room : hence a complete reversal of

the former wrorld-picture became necessary,

and Kant employed all his mighty powers in

its accomplishment. But to-day it often looks

as if life could be raised to an essentially

higher level within the world of natural

existence without much trouble if only it

were brought into more vigorous and direct

886 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

relation with the individual units. This,
however, is a dangerous error. If we do
not bring the living units into connection
with a new kind of being and thereby give
them an essentially new content, this move-
ment, by awakening their self-consciousness
and self-complacency, may easily do more
harm than good, and, with all its subjective
stimulation, provide little genuine happiness ;
it is also dangerous in so far as it veils the
difficult problem with which we are here
concerned. The modern period, like all
others, is especially eloquent and enthusiastic
about that in which it is most lacking: we
are in painful want of vigorous and strongly
marked personalities of original force, and we
talk incessantly about personality, its value
and greatness.

If, then, the conclusion of the matter is that
we cannot overcome the complications and
gain a share of happiness from the immediate
situation, but can do so only by an energetic
transformation of the whole, it is our obvious

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 387

course to turn our gaze upon the whole of
history in order to gain thereby a wider
perspective and perhaps a point of support.
Thus viewed, however, the problem really
seems to be greater rather than smaller.
For our own examination showed that
wherever the desire for happiness found
satisfaction on the high level of the spiritual
life it involved definite convictions, but that
these convictions in the changing course of
the ages came to lose their immediacy and
their force. With the Greeks the struggle
for happiness rested on faith in the ration- ,
ality and beauty of the universe, the vigorous
realization of which would raise man above
all the constraints of existence ; in Christianity
it was the steadfast faith in the loving care of
an almighty Deity which supported man in
all the trials of life ; the modern period relied
on the reason indwelling in the human race
and on the unlimited capacity for increase
possessed by human faculties ; here it was
faith in a better future which raised man

388 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

above all the limitations of the moment. For
us moderns, however, the thought of the
beauty of the universe has faded away before
the dark actuality and the severe struggle for
existence which modern science displays to
us ; and we all know how religious faith has
been most severely shaken in the life of
culture. But least of all can a closer ex-
amination fail to recognize how seriously
faith in man and his spiritual greatness has
been impaired ; for here the test of experi-
ence lay nearest to hand, and experience,
wherever it has given a candid verdict, has
decided in the negative.

Hence that which afforded earlier periods
a firm foundation for happiness and an aid to
its development offers us at the present day
no sufficient point of support. In face of the
influences of the world which press so strongly
upon us we lack a rounded-ofF world of
thought to mitigate, transform, and turn to
account the doubts and difficulties of life:
in particular we lack a single supreme truth,

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 889

and hence we stand defenceless in face of an
all-powerful Fate. Is it to be wondered at
if in these circumstances pessimism boldly
raises its head and ever advances further?
We now see clearly that the very thing which
exalts man above nature involves him in vast
problems, with which he seems unable to
cope, It cannot fail to be recognized that a
new kind of life arises in him and separates
him from other beings. This life, however,
seems to find no support and help in the great
world ; it sees itself bound to unintelligible
conditions and treated by the process of
nature as if it were a thing of no importance.
Since at the same time in man himself it is
generally languid and burdened with sharp
contradictions, it seems unable to prevail
against all that alien world upon which it
supervenes. But with all its weakness and
constraint, this new life yet maintains its
standards and forces man to apply them to
all his doings and dealings. After this move-
ment the mere comfort of natural existence

390 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

can no longer be felt as satisfying: man's
awakened power demands a goal and an
intrinsic value, but it does not find what it
seeks and renunciation is impossible. Man's
thought carries in itself the idea of infinity
and eternity, and thereby destroys all the
satisfaction which can be found in the tem-
poral and the finite. Viewed in relation to
infinity man and all his doings must seem
unspeakably small ; the individual, too, as a
thinking being cannot help feeling the cramp-
ing limits, the nullity, even, of his particular
sphere ; the thought of eternity contracts into
a fleeting span the whole duration of our life
and threatens to take from it all its zest and
heart. But the course of history heightens
rather than diminishes these complications.
For the more man develops his specific
characteristics, and the further his thought
carries him beyond the sphere of immediate
existence, giving him at the same time a
feeling of freedom, the greater appears the
resistance of an alien world which does not

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 391

partake in his advance, and the heavier the
pressure of a rigid order of things. Human
experience, too, teaches us plainly the moment
we consult it that the progress of civilization
rather leads man into increasing complications
than bestows upon him pure and complete
happiness.

Thus the problem of happiness runs through
the whole movement of history, and that
which is in question is not merely the paths
which lead to the goals but the goals them-
selves. It follows that beyond all doubt
philosophy has here a great task to perform,
and indeed that it is here indispensable to
humanity. For if a natural instinct does not
infallibly show us the way, and if at the same
time all our efforts after genuine happiness
need to be founded on definite convictions
about the Whole, humanity cannot dispense
with a vigorous effort of introspection. Here,
too, we encounter the problem of truth ; no
amount of subjective wishing and willing can
lead us on the path to happiness unless the

392 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

possibility of happiness is guaranteed by the
reality of things. But to give information
on this head is pre-eminently the task of
philosophy.

But, as all our previous discussion shows,
it will make no progress unless a successful
attempt is made to extract from the ex-
periences of human life an all-embracing fact
or supreme truth which shall help us to con-
centrate and strengthen our powers and render
them superior to obstacles. The experiences
and changes of the ages show that we have
to seek a fact of this nature primarily not
outside but within ourselves, that is, not in
the mere circumstances of the individual but
in a vital process superior to him. The
peculiarly human attributes have been the
source of all complications ; these complica-
tions, therefore, will in all probability be
insoluble unless the specifically human ele-
ment is further deepened, brought into wider
connections, and thereby made a match for
the indifferent or hostile world. With this

THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS 398

we return to the problem of an independent
spiritual life superior to the mere man. If
the spiritual process which takes place in us
is a mere product of man, this involves the
disappearance of all hope of building up a
specific world from it as a centre, and of
winning at the same time significance, value,
and happiness for human existence : on this
conclusion all our labour and toil is lost, and
victory rests finally with negation. Hence
only one way is left, viz., to understand and
treat the spiritual life as an independent
world ; only thus can we hope to win a
content for our life and to save it from the
nothingness into which otherwise it irretriev-
ably sinks. With the appropriation of these
connections our existence is by no means
transformed into vain pleasure and harmony,
but rather the contrasts and conflicts of
existence may at first appear only greater and
more intolerable, and the battle may become
fiercer than ever. But if human endeavour is
provided with a firm point of support in the

394 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

movement of the universe and allowed to
draw upon its resources, it can confidently
begin the battle; it is then at least certain
that our life is not in vain, but that something
of moment is accomplished in it, however far
we may be from having a clear view of the
whole. But if philosophy has in general been
found indispensable to the battle for happiness,
it must become still more so when we see
that what is needed is a radical deepening
and a vigorous unification of life. For what
is there more qualified than philosophy for
the task first of destroying the illusory hopes
which the modern world holds out to man,
and secondly, of pushing on the work of
positive construction and searching out new
paths ?

Conclusion

A variety of pictures has passed before us,
a variety of movements has come within our
view in connection with the different funda-
mental problems. Nowhere, however, have
we seen the movement advancing in a straight
line, but the historical aspect is complicated
by a series of reactions and revulsions. But at
the same time it has become clear that the
problems of the past reach into the present and
that our work is conditioned by the strong
influences of history. Now the goal appears
as the overcoming of traditional oppositions,
now as the more vigorous following up of a
course successfully begun, but in almost every
case a glance backwards will make our own
task clearer : we cannot doubt that our work,
to be successful, must meet the demands of a

3Ö5

396

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

situation conditioned by its antecedents. But
it has become just as apparent that we cannot
simply accept a particular stimulus and allow
ourselves to be carried on without trouble by
the stream of history. For we have seen
everywhere that the earlier achievements can
no longer satisfy us in their more detailed
development, that the movement itself has
produced a new situation with peculiar
demands. Not only an abundance of problems
encompasses us on all sides but our spiritual
condition as a whole has become insecure ; we
feel with particular distinctness at the present
day that the life of humanity is not being built
up in peace and security on a fixed foundation,
but that we have continually to renew the
struggle for its continuance and its main
principles. Everything tends to show that our
period is full of tension and occupied with high
tasks ; it is obvious that we have come to a
point where it is a question of recurring to the
fundamental problems, to the elementary con-
ditions of our spiritual existence ; we are

CONCLUSION

397

urgently called to the search for new paths,
to independent creative effort.

But the average attainment of the period by
no means corresponds to the demands of the
spiritual situation ; we feel, perhaps to a greater
extent than other epochs, how far human
conduct can diverge from the inner necessities
of the spiritual life. The spiritual situation of
the present urgently calls for a synthesis of
life, for an overcoming of oppositions* for a
system atization which should deal with the
whole, and also for a concentration of men on
the search for common paths. In place of this
we find a high degree of isolation, a complete
separation into different parties and groups, a
treatment of problems from the standpoint of
mere party. This division into different circles
and sharp oppositions hinders all mutual
understanding ; to each it seems to admit of
no doubt that his own way of thinking is the
best and constitutes the certain cure for all
ills ; it is never doubted that the other party
is entirely in the wrong. Self-complacency

398 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

and dogmatism thus flourish luxuriantly, the
constant criticism of others stifles all self-
criticism. Thus the different movements are
bound to intersect and hinder one another,
and in the end a confused chaos must arise,
from which it is impossible for successful
creative efforts to proceed.

In addition, the spiritual situation demands
a vigorous deepening of thought and life, for
otherwise how should we be equal to dealing
with the difficult problems which the age lays
upon our shoulders, or how could we wrest
from this confused medley goals and paths of
our own ? In place of this the average man
clings to the surface of things and is content
to do so : we surrender ourselves to the first
impression and do not perceive into what
complexity it may lead us ; hence everything
seems easy and smooth and all difficulties
appear to exist only in the imagination of those
who are involved in old prejudices. This mode
of thought further leads us into sharp contra-
dictions in our own being by bidding us follow

CONCLUSION

399

first one and then another impression ; and
hence in particular we often seek to retain as
an effect and consequence what we have
definitely rejected as a cause and ground. In
this way alone has it become possible for the
thought and the action of the period to employ
as a general rule fundamentally different
standards of value. Our thought is occupied
chiefly with the visible world and shuns as
" metaphysics " everything which transcends
its limits ; but in action there prevails a vague
idealism, which treats conceptions such as
reason and personality, humanity and human
greatness, as incontestable values, without
realizing that with them a new world is intro-
duced. But in the end our spiritual creative
efforts are oppressed by a desire for negation,
an inclination to expect great benefit from the
destruction of traditional systems, from the
rejection of old solutions. Now the age
certainly contains much that is obsolete and
rotten, which urgently needs to be removed,
but negation cannot produce any true advance

400 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

unless behind it there lies the impelling force
of an affirmation, which gives effort a fixed
direction. But this is usually lacking ; it is
the negation as negation which satisfies many
and is thought to be something great. But
since there is usually nothing narrower and
more impatient than negation, it produces to-
day a dogmatism, and indeed a despotism,
which is bound to impair to the most serious
extent spiritual creative efforts and the true
knowledge of the present situation.

But if the surface of things offers the most
obstinate resistance to the necessary renewal
of culture and strengthening of inner life, and
if no essential progress of life is possible from
this starting-point, but only in opposition to
it, we may welcome as evidence of an increas-
ing reaction the fact that this obstacle is
coming to be more and more felt, and that
the necessity of deliverance from isolation,
shallowness, and negation is becoming more
and more clearly recognized. The more, how-
ever, spiritual work strives to gain indepen-

CONCLUSION

40J

dence of the superficiality of the period, and
the more the desire emerges for greater depths
and more essential contents of life, the more
valuable must the work of philosophy appear,
and the less doubt can there be felt that it is
indispensable for overcoming the present crisis
of spiritual life.

But at the same time it will also be clearly
seen that philosophy must have a special
nature in order to be able to discharge these
tasks. It must not be an affair of mere
learning, nor can it remain a mere blending
of reflection and subjective acuteness, but it
must become an energetic pressing forward
and a spiritual creation, it must work out
depths of our life, awaken dormant powers,
co-ordinate isolated efforts, indeed it must
reveal a new reality if it is to help humanity
to deal with these leading questions and at
the same time to preserve the independence of
its own position. For such progressive crea-
tion it has to seek a new and peculiar stand-
point, and in this sense it must assume the

402 THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT

form of a metaphysics. But it cannot avoid
the errors of the old metaphysics unless it
starts from the process of life, as we see it not
in the isolated individual but in the whole of
humanity, and unless it succeeds in the
attempt to discover and develop in mankind
a general tendency opposed to the initial
situation.

This is much what we had in mind when
we spoke of a philosophy of spiritual life and
desired the elaboration of such a philosophy,
It is only such a philosophy which can co-
ordinate and make use of all the experience
accumulated in the history of the world
without surrendering the rights of the living
present ; only such can place us under the
constraint of an inner necessity and at the
same time summon us to fresh and joyous
activity; it alone can do justice to the
diversity of the relations of life and at the
same time strive after a straightforward sim-
plicity ; it alone can in the end serve to
promote the advancement of life without

CONCLUSION

403

sinking to a matter of mere utility. A
philosophy of this nature is especially con-
genial to the peculiar characteristics of the
German people and the traditions of German
life: a nation which has produced men like
Eckhardt and Leibniz, Kant and Hegel, and
so many other thinkers spiritually akin to
these, will never be able to give up the desire
for a philosophy which seeks to regard reality
from the inside and from the point of view of
the whole, and which, in the midst of earnest
and laborious investigation, strives to raise the
whole of human life to a higher level.

INDEX OF NAMES

Antiquity (Greek), 33 ff., 107 ff., 199 ff, 284 ff, 338 ff,
356 ff.

Archimedes, 73, 146, 234.

Aristotle, 2, 8, 37 ff., 6l, 71, 109, HO, 125, 203, 207, 275,

285, 287, 289, 290, 338, 343 ff.
Athenagoras, 294.

Augustine, 58, 120, 121, 140, 213, 277, 295.
Bacon, 369, 370.

Christianity, 49 ff, 118 ff, 134, 174, 176, 211 ff, 251, 252,

294 ff, 299, 303, 357 ff
Church, 57 ff, 69, 93, 99, 124, 223, 226, 301.
Comte, 91, 242, 324.

Descartes, 73, 146, 149, 307.

Eckhardt, 403.
Eleatics, 33.

Enlightenment, 79, 132, 147, 149, 184, 233, 307 ff, 374,
377.

Epicurus, 4, 8, 384.

Fichte, 307, 319.

Goethe, 139, 141, 205, 286.
Gregory of Nyssa, 36 1.

Hegel, 10, 54, 89, 138, 139, 141, 150, 151, 242, 307, 319,
326, 367, 403.

405

406

INDEX OF NAMES

Herbart, 10.
Herder, 71.

Kant, 6, 71, 72, 75, 147, 149, 307, 313, 315 ff., 374, 385,
403.

Leibniz, 74, 75, 138, 147, 307, 309, 367, 370, 403.
Locke, 71.

Middle Ages, 58 ff., 66, 125, 128, 133, 167.
Mill, 324.

Modern Period, 66 ff., 131, 134, 145, 146, 169, 177, 222,

227, 252, 302, 305, 366 ff.
Mysticism, 47 ff, 63, 127, 140, 159.

Nicolaus of Cusa, 366.

Plato, 2, 6, 8, 35 ff, 105, 108, 173, 207, 285, 287, 340 ff.
Plotinus, 44 ff, 117, 120, 286, 291 ff, 338, 350 ff
Positivism, 91, 141, 242, 322, 324.
Pragmatism, 322 ff
Protestantism, 298, 301.
Pythagoreans, 32.

Reformation, 72, 132, 365.
Renaissance, 132.

Roman Catholicism, 60, 164 ff, 225, 297 ff., 301, 365.

Scepticism, 291.
Schelling, 307.

Scholasticism, 6l ff, 69, 126, 289.
Socrates, 4.
Sophists, 4, 34.
Spencer, 324.

Spinoza, 147, 189, 277, 278, 307, 309 ff, 333.
Stoicism, 4, 8, 42, 289, 290.

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